Offensive Line a Bears Concern
The Bears offensive line switch pending for so long will be put on hold indefinitely due to the knee injury to guard Cody Whitehair.
Bears coach Matt Eberflus on Monday said Whitehair's injury is serious enough to force him out of the lineup for quite a while but said the seven-year veteran will be able to return at some point this season.
"Cody is going to miss some time," Eberflus said. "He has a knee injury. We're not sure exactly what that time frame is right now but going forward we'll view it with that same lineup we had going forward.
"So we'll see where that goes. But yeah. The guy started 99 games and has missed two during that career, so you talk about tough. And a guy that really shows Chicago Bear toughness. That's Cody Whitehair. We're going to miss him for a little bit of time."
Eberflus said it might be until Wednesday whether he knows whether the injury necessitates a stay on injured reserve for Whitehair, although this would seem likely considering he said Whitehair would be out.
The pending move had been Lucas Patrick to center, with Teven Jenkins taking over as starting right guard and Sam Mustipher going to the bench. Now, it will be Patrick playing left guard, Mustipher remaining at center and Jenkins owning the the right guard spot.
The injury takes the only Bears player who didn't allow a quarterback pressure Sunday out of the lineup, according to Pro Football Focus grading.
Mustipher experienced an awful day according to PFF stats. He gave up six of the 12 pressures the Bears linemen were said to have allowed.
The line switch due to injury was made about halfway through the game and the Bears allowed six sacks and six tackles for loss on Sunday. They have given up 16 sacks on the year.
Only Washington has allowed more sacks than the Bears.
The Bears could get line help back soon as tackle Alex Leatherwood is eligible to return after he went on the non-football illness list with what was reported by NFL Network to be mono. That was just before the season began four weeks ago.
The Bears made a roster move, though. Emergency kicker Michael Badgley was no longer needed after he produced all 12 points on Sunday with short field goals, as he replaced Cairo Santos due to a personal absence. So Badgley was cut.
"Cairo is back in the building," Eberflus said. "He's squared away. His personal matter is all set and I'll let him talk about that, but everything looks good in that regard, which is outstanding.
"And Badgley, what a great job by him coming in, filling in in a short notice. Obviously you know I had him at the last place we were at (Indianapolis) for a little bit. He was steady then and he was certainly steady yesterday. Credit to him, so I just want to give him that shout out there, because he did an awesome job for our football team."
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