One of the things the Chicago Bears knew they had to do this off-season was get the center position settled. It was way too much of a liability in 2022. Lucas Patrick couldn’t stay healthy, and Sam Mustipher never played beyond his capability as a backup. GM Ryan Poles had two options. He could search for an outside solution in free agency or the draft, or he could opt for somebody on the roster already. Given the team wanted to focus its resources on fixing the tackle spot, they opted to move Cody Whitehair back to center.
It was a logical decision. He’s reliable from a healthy standpoint and has several seasons of experience in the middle. If anybody could settle the position down, at least for one year, it’s him. Whitehair seems perfectly happy with the move. It is familiar territory for him. He knows the offense by now and the necessary calls to make. The one concern some people had was whether he’d suffer from the high shotgun snap issues that plagued him earlier in his career. Thankfully he told Josh Schrock of NBC Sports Chicago he’s bringing back the “dead” snap style that fixed the problem a few years ago.
“It kind of came about when I had a little bit of an issue there as far as snapping the ball high,” Whitehair said. “Harry Hiestand, when he was our line coach, kind of introduced me to this way of snapping and it’s really worked for me. I had a lot more success with it, so it just kind of stuck.”
The dead snap is something that has caught on in recent years.
It’s where centers hold the nose of the ball in their palm and snap it back vertically rather than horizontally via the laces. It creates better control of how the ball flies, leading to fewer bad snaps. The best part is Justin Fields is already a big fan of the change.
“We’ve had some dialogue with that and he seems to enjoy it at this point,” Whitehair said.
Whitehair believes Fields’ center at Ohio State, Josh Myers, used the same snap, and a brief tape audit shows he did hike the ball the same way in certain scenarios, so it’s not totally new to Fields. Whitehair believes other factors make his snap easier on quarterbacks, too.
“It’s a little bit slower snap, so as a quarterback, they kind of like that. It allows them to get the laces and throw a little bit faster.”
Cody Whitehair is making his QB more comfortable.
That is never a bad thing. The Bears don’t need him to be great. It would be enough if he merely provides stability. If that happens while Teven Jenkins and Nate Davis play up to their skill sets, that Bears interior has a chance to be pretty good. The last thing opponents want is Fields to have a comfortable pocket to sit in. When he’s protected, bad things happen to them. Whitehair isn’t a stranger to this. He saw Mitch Trubisky flourish in 2018 when his play at center was high quality.
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It’s hard to imagine Cody Whitehair has reached this moment. He was never supposed to be a center. Chicago drafted him in 2016 with the express intent of making him their left guard of the future. Then, just before the start of the regular season, Hroniss Grasu tore his ACL. That opened a gaping hole at center. Coaches asked Whitehair to make the switch. He did and played surprisingly well. Since then, he’s become their most versatile and dependable lineman of the past seven years.
Whatever gets it done. This line could be really really good for a change.