The Chicago Bears offense was dead in the water. Halfway through 2019 and it didn’t resemble anything close to the unit that finished the previous year on such a high note. Driving down the field against the defending champions for a chance to win a playoff game. They couldn’t run the ball. Their quarterback was out of sorts and so confused. Nothing was going right. So before a pivotal game against Detroit on November 10th, head coach Matt Nagy decided to change things up.
No, he didn’t switch quarterbacks or shuffle the wide receiver position. Instead, he went back to an older formula on the offensive line by switching Cody Whitehair back to center and James Daniels back to left guard. When the season began, the team felt the two had been moved to their more natural positions. Daniels was a successful center at Iowa. Whitehair had originally been slotted for left guard back in 2016 before an injury to Hroniss Grasu forced him to the center spot.
It seemed like a logical move at the time even though the offense had success with them in their original positions in 2018. They were wrong. Daniels either wasn’t ready or wasn’t able to handle the extra duties in the middle. So the Bears shifted Whitehair back in. The results have spoken for themselves
Daniels at C and Whitehair at LG (first 8 games)
- Sacks allowed per game – 2.75
- Rushing yards per game – 72.75
- Points per game – 16.875
Whitehair at C and Daniels at LG (5 games since)
- Sacks allowed per game – 2.6
- Rushing yards per game – 91.8
- Points per game – 20.2
Chicago Bears offense started clicking after this move
There is no denying the facts. Everything started to shift in a positive direction. Trubisky had more time to throw and started hitting a lot more of his passes. The running game actually started to gel a little bit. Most importantly the team was putting more points on the board. It wasn’t noticeable right away but as Whitehair took back control of the protection calls and Daniels found his comfort zone, the entire front just took everything up a notch.
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Remember that this move wasn’t exactly celebrated when it happens. A lot of people including the likes of former Pro Bowl center Olin Kreutz were opposed to it. He and others felt the Bears were abandoning the Daniels experiment too soon. That the kid needed more time to find his way. It’s a fair point but Nagy didn’t have the luxury of patience anymore. His team was floundering and he had to find some way to give them a jolt.
Time proved him correct. If not for that bold move, it’s fair to wonder would the Bears even be in the position they are now? Thankfully fans will never have to know.
