Over the last few years, the Chicago Bears have been developing one of the NFL’s best rosters. One of the key pieces on the Bears offensive line has been guard Cody Whitehair, who is entering a contract year.
But for Whitehair, the only thing he’s focused on right now is football. He’s going to leave any contract talks to his agent.
“It’ll happen,” Whitehair said, via 670 the Score. “I’m not too worried about it. I’m just focused on ball.”
With the Bears just one week away from the start of the 2019 regular season, Whitehair now finds himself at left guard, a move that was made in the offseason with Whitehair and center James Daniels moving to their natural positions.
Whitehair has been an integral part of the Bears offensive line, which returns all five starters from a season ago. Whitehair has started all 48 regular-season games since he was drafted by the Bears in the second round in 2016.
With Whitehair in a contract year, he’s not worried about an extension just yet. And history shows he shouldn’t be.
In the past, GM Ryan Pace has awarded extensions to players just days ahead of the regular season, including guard Kyle Long (2016), offensive tackle Charles Leno Jr. (2017), defensive lineman Akiem Hicks (2017) and defensive lineman Eddie Goldman (2018.)
With Leno restructuring his contract last week to free up an additional $5.6 million in salary-cap space, there’s a belief that the Bears are gearing up for an extension.
Whitehair appears to be the only Bear in line for an extension prior to the start of the season, although there are other contract situations to watch moving forward, including All-Pro safety Eddie Jackson, running back Tarik Cohen, as well as quarterback Mitch Trubisky.
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