It's been a while since Bears guard and center Cody Whitehair had real job competition.
It might even be since his rookie year, when he quickly moved from guard to center and eventually became a Pro Bowl player three years later. He has some now from Lucas Patrick, after a game unlike most Whitehair ever played.
"I take a lot of pride in my work," Whitehair said. "Any time things aren't going your way, you've gotta dive in and dissect where you're going wrong.
"That's what I'm in right now. Obviously looking at tape and seeing how I can get better and trying to perfect it."
Bears coach Matt Eberflus left little doubt where a good deal of blame rested for some of the offensive line failures in Sunday's loss to Minnesota. Five sacks plus pressure leading to two interceptions indicated something went wrong up front.
"The guys were prepared," Eberflus said. "I just think we needed to do a better job of executing in the moment.
"We know that they were going to give us a bunch of different looks and we needed to make the right calls at the line of scrimmage."
Whitehair was the one making line calls, until he was pulled in favor of Lucas Patrick in the fourth quarter. He also had several poor snaps in shotgun. So it's going to be on Whitehair to get the blocking changes made at the line right going forward, as well as the snaps. That is, if he gets the chance.
"This is a week-to-week thing," Eberflus said. "We've gotta make sure we're putting the best players in position, and performance is a part of that of course, and not only during the last game, but during the week."
It sounds like there will be some interesting practices this week and possibly competition between Whitehair and Patrick.
Considering the Raiders have Maxx Crosby and former Bears defensive lineman Bilal Nichols to contend with up front, they need to get their act together quickly.
"Obviously you're making the calls (at center), telling guys what to do," Whitehair said. "Obviously snapping the ball is a big thing. You just got to take command out there and make sure everybody's on the same page.
"That's the big thing about the center and obviously you've got to execute."
For Whitehair, it hasn't been easy. He was supposed to start out at center after playing left guard since the middle of 2020. Then he was at guard after calf injuries to left guard Teven Jenkins. Then it was back to center for Sunday's game with Jenkins back on the field.
"I was there during training camp for a majority of the training camp," Whitehair said of center. "I've just gotta get better at snapping the ball. I take full responsibility for that. That has to get done."
Whitehair didn't want to hear talk about the difficulty of moving back and forth, and not really snapping from late August through September and into early October.
"I always try and stay ready, whether that be before and after practice," Whitehair said. "Just gotta keep perfecting the snap and keep getting better."
One other twist to this is the center this week will likely be working with a completely inexperienced quarterback in Tyson Bagent.
"I think a big thing, you've gotta have great communication with the guy, a younger guy," Whitehair said. "We've gotta make sure we're on the same page and give ourselves a chance to get the play started. And then obviously in pass protection, keep it clean for him so he can go through his progression."
Now Whitehair needs to hope he gets the chance to make amends after last week's benching.
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