The Chicago Bears are hopeful center Cody Whitehair will return from a calf injury soon, but now they are bracing to be without right tackle Bobby Massie for a significant period.
Whitehair missed a game for the first time in his career in Sunday's overtime loss to the New Orleans Saints at Soldier Field. That ended his streak of 71 consecutive starts and forced another change along the offensive line, which previously lost left guard James Daniels for the season with a torn pectoral muscle. The good news is the Bears were optimistic last week that Whitehair won't be out for long.
Massie's left knee buckled on the fourth offensive play Sunday when right guard Germain Ifedi and a pile of players fell on the back of his left leg at the end of a short run by David Montgomery. Massie could be sidelined a month, according to a league source.
How the Bears react will be interesting. The trade deadline is 3 p.m. Tuesday, but the possibility other teams are shopping quality linemen is remote. Swing tackle Jason Spriggs was plugged in to replace Massie and wound up coming out of the game for one snap. During the preseason, Spriggs missed a little more than two weeks with a right knee injury.
Massie, 31, missed one game last season with a minor case of vertigo before a high ankle sprain put him on the shelf for the final five weeks. The Bears signed Massie to a four-year, $32 million extension in January 2019 that included $15.8 million guaranteed.
Rashaad Coward, who has played left guard in the absence of Daniels, spent some time at right tackle during training camp and shifted there for the one play Spriggs missed against the Saints. Former Notre Dame offensive lineman Alex Bars is in the mix and played some left tackle in training camp.
Rookie seventh-round pick Lachavious Simmons, who is on the practice squad, is being groomed as a tackle. And Arlington Hambright, another rookie seventh-round pick, is working at guard.
Spriggs is the obvious candidate to replace Massie, provided he doesn't have any health issues. A former second-round pick of the Green Bay Packers, he started nine games for them from 2016 to 2018 before spending all of last season on injured reserve.
Sam Mustipher, an undrafted free agent from Notre Dame in 2019, started at center in place of Whitehair against the Saints, and coach Matt Nagy and quarterback Nick Foles have praised him for his intelligence and communication skills.
It's worth wondering if the Bears will choose between Mustipher and Coward as they look to get their five best linemen on the field. They have struggled to run the ball since the first two games, and Foles has been sacked nine times in the last two games.
"When you have a lack of consistency — and I'm talking more health-wise; you've got different guys up there on that front line — it can become more difficult," Nagy said. "There's some guys in there that don't have a whole lot of experience. Now there's others that do. And trying to find out how do we play well together and how do we protect and scat protection when there's only five of us and are we making the right calls.
"(Sunday) you had Sam in there playing center, and I thought he did a really good job, for the most part, of making calls, of being a leader in that huddle. But that's his first game he's ever started. You've got a left guard in Rashaad Coward that was a defensive tackle three years ago. So they're learning here. We know that. But at the same time, we hold them accountable, we hold our coaches accountable, that it does start there. Whether it's in the run game or in pass (protection), if it gets leaky at all, meaning that guys are coming through and the timing's not right, it can be hard.
"But I will say this: I thought there was an improvement with the run game in particular, with being able to get some more runs that were 5 and 6 (yards). As much as it stinks to lose the game, I do feel like that part was a little bit better. It's not where we want it to be, but it was better."
The Bears are bringing in veteran center Aaron Neary for a tryout. He has spent time with the Broncos, Eagles and Rams and played in one game for the Rams in 2017. Massie is a candidate for injured reserve, considering players are eligible to return after missing three games.
