Chicago Bears: 5 Players who must shine vs. Chargers in Week 8

James Daniels, Center

James Daniels is a quiet player. You don’t really hear anything about him unless something bad happens. Well, something bad has happened for some time now, and Daniels needs to step up.

With Kyle Long going down for the season and probably permanently, the Chicago Bears offensive line is void of a leader. Yes, Cody Whitehair, Charles Leno, and Bobby Whitehair are all veterans with more time than Daniels, but Daniels is the center.

The center is basically the quarterback of the offensive line. He barks out signals on the type of blocking schemes and assignments. The center is an important part of how the line blocks for the quarterback and the running backs. If he calls the wrong assignment the play goes nowhere. There have been too many times this season when defensive linemen got into the Bears’ backfield too easily. That is on Daniels.

In Daniels’ rookie season, the Bears decided to put him in at guard instead of his customary center spot. Whitehair had a good rapport with Trubisky and with Daniels being a rookie the Bears felt it would be better to keep Whitehair at center and move Daniels.

This offseason, however, the Bears made the change. They swapped Whitehair and Daniels. It seems now that the growing pains they wanted to avoid last season is occurring this season.

Head coach Matt Nagy stated that there would not be another switch made. Both players will remain in their spots so Daniels needs to improve quickly. I don’t know if he’s getting or asking for help from Whitehair but that should be happening.

The line is pretty much the same from last season. The only change is the swap but the line is performing horribly this season. Daniels, as the center, needs to step up and get everyone in line. If he’s too quiet and introverted to do so then the Bears need to change things back.