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The Chicago Bears made their first move in addressing the offensive line with the signing of Lucas Patrick, who is a versatile player with experience at all three interior positions not he offensive line.
But with the uncertainty of what the offensive line will look like in 2022, the question was where Patrick would line up. Although, it sounds like he was brought in to play on specific position.
Lucas met with the media on Friday, where he confirmed that he’ll indeed be playing center for the Bears. Last year, Lucas made 11 of his 13 starts at center with the Packers in place of an injured Josh Myers.
“That’s where I think I’ll be, but if there’s one thing I’ve learned in the NFL, it’s be ready to play any position,” Patrick said. “That’s definitely one thing I’ll bring to this team is the availability and the reliability at multiple positions.”
Which is good news for Chicago given Patrick is familiar with new offensive coordinator Luke Getsy and can help teach the terminology and scheme to his teammates.
“Just the experience I have with it … I understand a lot of what he wants to do and understand him as a person as well,” Patrick said. “And I think that helps to disseminate information from him to guys so that you can say like, ‘hey, this is what he’s saying but he means this.’ Or, ‘when he calls this, this is what we’re trying to do here. This is the big goal.'”
But the most important thing for Patrick is his relationship with his new quarterback Justin Fields. Patrick said he plans on “annoying” Fields as the two start working together.
“We’re going to have to trust each other,” Patrick said. “There’s a reason he was brought here and there’s a reason he is the player he is, and [I’ll] listen to what he thinks he does well and what has worked for him and hopefully expand that as much as I can.”
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