Bears GM Ryan Poles Shares Insights on Cody Whitehair's Upcoming Path

As the 2023 NFL season nears, Bears General Manager Ryan Poles needs to make many choices about which older players should stay on the team. After a disappointing 2022 season with a 3-14 record, the Bears have a lot of money to spend on changing their team. One big decision is whether to keep experienced offensive lineman Cody Whitehair, which could save the team about $10 million.

From the start, Whitehair showed he could be a strong and lasting part of the Bears' offensive line. In his first year, he played left guard but switched to center during the 2016 preseason, playing all 16 games. In 2018, Whitehair played in every offensive play and made it to his first Pro Bowl, the first Bears center to do so since Olin Kreutz.

In 2019, Whitehair went back to left guard and has mostly played there since. That year, he also signed a five-year, $52.5 million contract extension, which is still active. His $14,100,000 cost in 2023 is the second highest on the Bears' team and the eighth highest among all NFL guards.

During Poles' first offseason, he showed a habit of cutting players seen as "injury-prone." While Whitehair stayed healthy in his first six seasons, a knee injury in Week 4 against the New York Giants put him on the injured list for the first time. As a result, he played only 12 games in 2022, raising questions about his long-lasting ability as he turns 31 years old in July.

Keeping Whitehair would provide a stable, older presence at the guard position for younger players like Teven Jenkins, Larry Borom, and Braxton Jones. Poles hinted in March that Whitehair might play as a center again in 2023, and he repeated this idea during the April 29th press conference when ESPN's Courtney Cronin asked about focusing on younger centers.

Poles told reporters,

As seen at: Bears GM Ryan Poles Sounds Off on Cody Whitehair's Future

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