All offseason, there seemed one lineman on the market who seemed like a natural fit for the Raiders and it was Cody Whitehair. The former second round pick had started nearly every game of his eight year career and yet was nowhere to be found among any of the top free agent lists.
This seemed odd to me, so I reached out to a Bears reporter to see if there was something I was missing and the response I got was basically that they we just as puzzled by it.
Whitehair had regressed of late, along with some injury issues. But the injuries were nothing major, and his level of play was at or above some other players teams had no issue letting hit the market. Mostly he was due some $10 million in salary, and wasn’t playing up to that level, so he was cut.
With the Raiders hiring former Bears offensive coordinator Luke Getsy to the same job, Whitehair seemed like a no-brainer signing. And as of the first report day, Whitehair is in the house, ready to help the rest of the Raiders line get up to speed in their new offense.
“It’s going to be awesome,” Andre James said Monday of having Whitehair onboard. “I was just talking the other day [about] some of the schemes and some of the other things that they ran. It’s always helpful having a guy who’s familiar with the offense, familiar with the scheme and the system especially in the offensive line room. Just to kind of pick his brain and get some of the keys and information that he’s gotten from the long time he’s been there working with the Bears. So, super excited to have him.”
Whitehair played left guard under Getsy in the Bears’ wide zone blocking scheme for two seasons. Prior to that he played both left guard and center for his first six NFL seasons in Chicago.