Most people will wonder why the Chicago Bears brass would consider having some of their current players switch positions. If it ain't broke, don't fix it right? Here's the thing though. For all the good things the team did in 2018 from winning the division to hosting a playoff game, they still didn't achieve their goal. They didn't win the Super Bowl. That team wasn't good enough to do it.
So they must operate with the singular question in mind this offseason. What can we do to get better? Most would assume it's trying to add more talent to the roster. That is always the goal, but sometimes a team doesn't have the resources to pull that off. Another possibility then is the somewhat unorthodox method of maybe switching players they already have to positions they might be more effective.
Head coach Matt Nagy and GM Ryan Pace touched on this subject in-depth during their respective meetings with the Bears media down in Arizona. It was Nagy who started the ruckus in unexpected fashion when he said the coaching staff was considering a slight tweak to the offensive line.
Chicago Bears may feel James Daniels is at his best at center
It's difficult to surmise exactly why the Bears would make such a move. Whitehair went to his first Pro Bowl as a center last season. He didn't allow a sack and graded out as a better run blocker than Daniels. Could it be Nagy still doesn't trust Whitehair with snapping the ball? It was a well-documented problem going into 2018. He ended up changing his snapping style to help give him more control of the ball. It seemed to help as the frequency of low or high balls diminished, but he still had his occasional wounded duck. Perhaps the Bears feel Daniels would be more consistent. Or maybe they just drafted him with a move to center in mind whenever he was ready. That wasn't the only interesting roster topic that popped up. Pace later made one regarding the Bears' noted depth issue at edge rusher. While most would expect the team to add more via free agency or the draft, he sees a possible in-house move that could also help.“It’s on us to develop our younger players. And we have to do that to get better. Especially with pass rusher, we’re looking to add more and more. But if you look at our D-line depth, that can add to some of that too. A guy like Roy Robertson-Harris, there are a lot of creative things we can do with him too. So it’s not just the outside linebackers. The pass rush and front in general, we feel pretty good about.”
