The Chicago Bears’ 2017 season was supposed to be one guided by an offensive line believed to be a top-5 unit. Things didn’t quite unfold as expected, though, as the line battled injuries and ineffectiveness throughout the season.
But if you’re already looking forward to next season, this group’s recent performance suggests good things could be on the horizon.
Indeed, while Mitch Trubisky playing his best game as a rookie earned the spotlight, he couldn’t have done it without an improving offensive line.
The most encouraging sign for the line moving forward is the re-emergence of center Cody Whitehair. The second-year Kansas State product struggled early as he adjusted to playing three different spots along the offensive line in the preseason and in the opening weeks of the regular season. Whitehair played snaps at center and both guard spots as the Bears were forced to shuffle the interior of the line due to injury.
Now that he has settled back into a role as the team’s full-time center, Whitehair has posted a top-5 grade from PFF in three of the team’s five games since the bye week. So while we’ll never know the impact it had toward Whitehair’s sophomore slump, there is little doubt it played some role in his ineffectiveness.
Whitehair’s best performance came in Week 14, when he earned a spot on Pro Football Focus’ Team of the Week for his efforts against the Cincinnati Bengals. He allowed just one pressure on 34 pass-blocking snaps while also clearing space for Jordan Howard’s 100-yard rushing game.
Remember when Whitehair was one of the lowest-graded offensive linemen in football by PFF’s standards? Well, he is now the site’s 10th-highest-graded center – mostly on the strength of owning the fifth best run-blocking grade at his position.
Left tackle Charles Leno Jr. joined Whitehair on Pro Football Focus’ Team of the Week for their efforts against the Bengals on Sunday. Leno Jr. allowed no pressures against a talented and relatively healthy Cincinnati defensive line. And that’s just the latest strong performance from the left tackle, who earned top-5 grades in Weeks 10 and 11, too.
And we can’t forget Josh Sitton, who was on PFF’s Team of the Week after his performance against the San Francisco 49ers in Week 13 and is one of the five highest graded guards through 14 weeks of the season.
This is what we expected from the Bears’ offensive line from the start of the season, and to see they’re they’re doing it without Kyle Long makes it that much more impressive.
Chicago could stand to add some help along the line in 2018. Sitton and Long will be a year older, with the former entering the final year of his Bears contract and the latter coming off an injury-shortened season. The Bears are a near-lock to have a pick land in the top-10, where they could choose to pick an offensive lineman to aid in Trubisky’s development instead of a receiver.