Ryan Poles hints at the future of Cody Whitehair with the Chicago Bears

We heard from Ryan Poles today. It was the first time since the 2023 NFL Combine and the first time since the Chicago Bears made a trade with the Carolina Panthers for multiple draft picks and D.J. Moore. The Bears sent the Panthers the first-overall pick in the trade. Less than two weeks later the start of free agency was underway. We are on the fourth day of free agency, two days of legal tampering, and one official day of signings is almost in the books. The Chicago Bears have made some significant moves -- most notably at linebacker. However, fans are left confused.

When you have the worst offensive line and the worst defensive line in football, you'd expect to see a splash signing or two. The biggest signing in the trenches we have seen by the Chicago Bears is for Nate Davis. Davis could be an upgrade on the interior of the offensive line, but you have to wonder what the actual plan is seeing Davis has only ever played right guard and Teven Jenkins looked elite more often than not at the right guard spot last year.

Many, including myself, speculated that Cody Whitehair would be a salary cap casualty. He's due $14.1M this season, but if the Bears made him a post-June 1 cut they'd save over $9 million. They don't need the extra salary cap space, but Whitehair hasn't been great the last couple of seasons anyway. Ideally, I would like to see Teven Jenkins moved to left guard and Nate Davis remain at right guard. The team still needs to find an upgrade at center and right tackle. Apparently, Ryan Poles wasn't even in on Orlando Brown either. What exactly is the plan here?

Cody Whitehair could move to center for the Chicago Bears

If you listened to Ryan Poles speak today, the coaching staff is not ruling out moving Cody Whitehair to center. If you recall, Whitehair started out as the Bears' center in his rookie season. He had some snapping issues since he wasn't naturally a center, however, they did improve as he continued to get reps at the position. Being a center in the NFL requires you to be vocal and understand blocking assignments based on pre-snap reads. This is something James Daniels struggled with mightily and why he didn't last long as the Bears center in 2019.

Whitehair was a Pro Bowl center in 2018 - granted I don't put much stock into Pro Bowl appearances. If you like Pro Football Focus (PFF) grades, then you should love the idea of seeing Whitehair play center. In his rookie season, Cody Whitehair earned an elite grade of 87.5. His pass-blocking and run-blocking were both 86+. His pass blocking struggled in 2017, but he still finished with an overall grade of 71.4. In 2018, his Pro Bowl season, Cody Whitehair earned a 75.2 grade.

I'm not big on PFF grades and I need to go back and watch the film to grade him out properly, but I think too many fans are giving Whitehair hate for his play at center. He is an upgrade over both Sam Mustipher and Lucas Patrick. Moving him to center allows Teven Jenkins to play LG and Nate Davis to remain at RG. Then, they can have an open competition with hopefully a rookie center and a rookie right tackle. This means Braxton Jones would remain as the starting left tackle -- fine by me.

What do you want to see happen with the offensive line this offseason now that most of the top names in free agency are off the board?