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Bears Need to Determine How Much Grooming One Center Prospect Needs

Converting players is never an easy task but certain types of players have done it successfully and the Bears have shown interest in one during the draft process.
Gene Chamberlain|
Duke offensive lineman Brian Parker II battles at tackle against Notre Dame, but is switching to center in the NFL.
Duke offensive lineman Brian Parker II battles at tackle against Notre Dame, but is switching to center in the NFL. | Jim Dedmon-Imagn Images

When Bears offensive line coach Dan Roushar revealed on a podcast that his team likes to use its 30 visits as a check on questions they have about particular prospects rather than an indication of real intent to draft someone, he never actually said they would not draft those players.

What if the questions about the players are adequately answered?

Last year the Bears drafted none of those who made 30 visits. Even in other years, and other coaching/GM regimes they could only select a few of the visitors to Halas Hall. The picks simply may not have fallen in a way so they could select one of the visitors last year.

For those reasons, maybe the most intriguing offensive prospect they count among their 30 visits is Duke's tackle Brian Parker II.

This could be a player who does something improbable and they want to be certain of this possibility themselves with a closer look.

Parker did not played a down at center for Duke in games, according to Pro Football Focus. He has been a left or right tackle throughout college. He's basically trying to do what Tampa Bay's Graham Barton did, and that was be a starting offensive lineman at Duke who never played center and then converted. In Barton's case, it hasn't been seamless, as his best Pro Football Focus rank in two years is 28th.

However, Barton made this conversion to center in rapid fashion. He went to Tampa Bay training camp as an understudy to Robert Hainsey and competed against him for the job. Without a training camp in his first year due to injury, Barton took the center job and kept it, which, needless to say, is very difficult to do at a position where the player is responsible for line calls. 

In Parker, the Bears could see a perfect player to groom under bridge center Garrett Bradbury. He snapped at center in the East-West Shrine Game and Pro Football Network draft analyst Ian Cummings said he “looked right at home playing center and guard technique.”

Parker is a very cerebral type and mature, much like the Bears thought they had in Drew Dalman before his sudden retirement at age 27.  Dalman went to Stanford and majored in mechanical engineering. Parker attended another institution known for academic excellence and was a economics major.

"I was an economics major, so not the easiest major," as Parker told NFL combine reporters.

Parker said he prides himself on being prepared for every opponent, but is not all brains without braun. He was a high school wrestler and said it allows him to find the "pressure points," and to understand leverage in blocking.  

At 6-foot-5, 309 pounds, he has a frame to add weight and is probably more suited to interior line than tackle because his arms are not long enough for the outside (32-7/8 inches). However, they were longer than 60% of centers who have ever worked out at the combine.  

He also showed his cerebral side at the combine with one of the better answers to an unusual question. A reporter noted offensive linemen always look and act older than players at other positions, and wanted to know why this is.

Parker said they "mature faster when you're protecting somebody else."

That would the quarterback, and Caleb Williams can appreciate this considering a long-term center the Bears draft could very well become the fifth different center he takes snaps from in five years.

Certainly, a center who already plays the position will be available on Day 3 of the draft.

It's going be left to the Bears to decide then whether that's a better option or it's better to train their own guy from the ground up after he displayed traits so many top centers have while he played in college at another position.

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Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

Gene Chamberlain has covered the Chicago Bears full time as a beat writer since 1994 and prior to this on a part-time basis for 10 years. He covered the Bears as a beat writer for Suburban Chicago Newspapers, the Daily Southtown, Copley News Service and has been a contributor for the Daily Herald, the Associated Press, Bear Report, CBS Sports.com and The Sporting News. He also has worked a prep sports writer for Tribune Newspapers and Sun-Times newspapers.

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