Sorting Out a Bears OL Center Winner

Whitehair costs three times as much as Patrick. He's going to start barring injury.

Can Whitehair stay healthy for 17 games? Poles should have drafted Oluwatimi.

I think the plan designed by Poles & Eberflus was to move Cody back to center (arguable his best NFL position ... 2018 Pro Bowl as a center).  He's had one injury that has caused him to miss multiple games. From what I can see it was more of a soft tissue injury and no surgery was required. If you look at the press conference part of the Bears website, you'll see Whitehair talking about his move back to center was in the books form the word go this year.  I am assuming that Poles & Eberflus think he is healthy and they will use him for at least the 2023 season at center and get a center over the next year or two.

As far as injuries go for Oluwatimi, He was walking around in a foot cast prior to the last Fiesta Bowl and there was concern that he was going to miss the bowl game.  I did some twitter searches on Oluwatimi regarding injuries, and this wasn't his first.



Hopefully the injuries on both the guys are fully healed and they both are healthy all the way through 2023.

I understand your point.  Point well taken.  But Whitehair was a Pro Bowl center before Nagy bounced him around 3 positions (LG, RG & C).  If they keep him at center this year, he'll be really good.  I don't know if he'll be back to Pro Bowl form (probably not) but he will be rock solid there for us.  Patrick will be a very good backup at C.  He isn't a starter quality guy... but he is a good backup.  I thought he was a good backup in Green Bay.  If Whitehair does go down to injury, it is nice to have an experienced veteran C coming in behind him.  

For what it's worth, I was not impressed with ANY of the centers in this 2023 draft.  Hopefully 2024 is a better year for C's and the Bears get a stud... an absolute day-1 starting stud.