Chicago Bears head coach Matt Nagy flirted with the idea last season but held off. The team had drafted James Daniels out of Iowa in the 2nd round. He’d made his name there as a center, and a really good one. There was just one problem. They already had a solid center in Cody Whitehair. Even so, there were legitimate discussions about switching the two between left guard and center. In the end, they held off. The feeling was Daniels, as a rookie, wasn’t quite ready.
Fast forward to early 2019 and that excuse was no longer on the table. Daniels started most of the year at left guard and had his NFL experience. Nagy and the coaches decided it was time to make the switch. Whitehair moved to left guard and him to center. There was confidence from all that it would work out just fine. If things went as expected, it might actually improve the line play overall.
This could prove true in the long-term. There is no question though that the decision had profound consequences in the opener against the Green Bay Packers. Neither player had their best performance. Whitehair looked uncomfortable and somewhat uncertain at times at guard. Meanwhile, the change of Daniels at center led to some communication issues with right guard Kyle Long, both of whom missed a blitz pickup on Blake Martinez who had a crucial sack of Mitch Trubisky during the game.
Chicago Bears have some issues to clean up
It was a bad night for the interior of the Bears offensive line. Whithair and Long combined to allow 13 pressures on Trubisky including three sacks. Daniels was solid in pass protection but struggled a lot in the run game. Too many times the Bears were unable to forge lanes for their backs. Another issue that could’ve been created by shuffling things up like they did. Then there’s the last unmentionable.
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Lack of preseason reps.
Nagy hates the preseason with a passion and made it clear no starters would see the field. This is a nice idea from a health perspective. However, given the intricacies of line play, it was a significant risk to not give the starting five at least a few series to shake out any issues they may not have discovered in practice. It didn’t happen and they ended up coming out sloppy against the well-prepared and aggressive Packers front.
Odds are things should improve over the course of the year as communication problems are ironed out. Still, it’s hard not to see Nagy’s decision to make the switch as a vital key to the Bears’ offense performing so poorly. Mostly because the original formation of Whitehair at center and Daniels at left guard actually worked last season.
“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” Right?
