Are Chicago Bears making their offensive line worse with this move?

The Chicago Bears will be without Nate Davis for the next three or four weeks. So, the team had to make some sort of decision on what to do. The first thought was that Ja'Tyre Carter may step up and play because that is what happened in weeks two and three.

The Chicago Bears are making changes to their offensive line

However, Teven Jenkins came back in week five, so it gives the Bears some flexibility. The team has recently decided to move Teven Jenkins back to right guard and then shift Cody Whitehair into left guard, where he has played weeks one through five, and Lucas Patrick is back at center, where he played weeks one through five.

This makes sense in some regard, but you can also question if this is the best decision. The best thing that happened to the Bears offensive line was the insertion of Teven Jenkins at left guard. It brought some stability against Washington, and even against the Vikings, he had a few quality snaps. Now, they are asking him to shift back to right guard.

Jenkins played right guard last year, so it makes sense. At the same time, Jenkins spent all summer working to play left guard, and now they are asking him to change that all back on the fly. It is not fair and may make him worse. We have seen this with Cody Whitehair, who could have had a stellar career, but every year, he was back and forth between center and guard. Now, it changes every week.

In week five, he started at left guard and moved to center. In week six, he started at center and was benched. Now, in week seven, he is back at left guard. This is not making him better, and he is already looking worse this season than ever before.

It leaves Lucas Patrick at center, who has to stay there by default.

Nobody is saying that Ja'Tyre Carter is better than Cody Whitehair, but next season, there is a much better chance Carter is on the roster than Whitehair. It would be much more informative to know what they have in Carter and see if Carter has progressed in recent weeks compared to Whitehair, who we know exactly what he is.

Beyond that, when Davis comes back, you would expect them to ask Jenkins to move back to the left side. Why not just give Jenkins a full season at left guard and take it from there? The Bears are not seeing the big picture, and it may be making their line worse in the short term anyway.