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LAKE FOREST – The musical chairs have started for the Bears’ offensive line.
During the media shooting period on Monday, Lucas Patrick lined up at center and to his left was Cody Whitehair. This shuffling comes following the news about Teven Jenkins, who is reportedly dealing with a leg injury, according to The Chicago Tribune.
Last Thursday, Jenkins spoke to the media after the final joint practice with the Colts in Westfield, Ind. He was asked about how he felt being able to practice up to that point without any interruptions.
“It’s good. I mean, it hopefully shows signs of my wanted durability of myself for the rest of the season,” Jenkins said. “So as long as I’m staying out here right now through training camp, hopefully it shows positive signs for the rest of the year.”
This new injury will now be added to the long list the offensive lineman has unfortunately dealt with over the past two seasons.
Luckily, the man who lined up in Jenkins’ spot on Monday, has experience at the position. According to Pro Football Focus, Whitehair played all of his snaps last season (661) at left guard. Patrick, however, only played 10 snaps at center in the 2022 season. He also played 154 snaps at left guard and 105 at right guard last year. Patrick did play 822 snaps at center for the Packers during the 2021 season.
Khalil Herbert is one of the players who will directly be impacted by the change up front, but the second-year running back didn’t sound to worried when he was asked about it.
“It doesn’t do anything different for me,” Herbert said. “I’m very comfortable with any of those guys in the room lining up in front of me. Half the time during practice I won’t notice until midway through practice. All those guys, they do a great job of rotating. We’ve done it all camp. So I’m very comfortable with anybody in front of me. I feel like they can get the job done.”
The media will get an opportunity to ask coach Matt Eberflus about the change on the offensive line on Tuesday.