4 Chicago Bears players who will not return after 2022 season
By Ryan Heckman
Sam Mustipher will not return to the Chicago Bears after 2022
After going undrafted, interior offensive lineman Sam Mustipher found a home with the Bears and his former college coach, Harry Heistand. Even though the Bears have switched up offensive line coaches, Mustipher still finds himself in Chicago — for now.
At the moment, Mustipher might even start on the interior next to Cody Whitehair and Lucas Patrick. However, he will have plenty of competition now after this offseason saw the Bears add a lot of other names to the fold.
Mustipher will be competing with guys like veteran Dakota Dozier (whom he could likely beat out, but barely), along with rookies Zachary Thomas, Ja’Tyre Carter and Doug Kramer — all of whom were not Ryan Pace pick-ups, but selected by Poles in his first year. That’s a key part of this conversation, here.
Poles invested three of his Day 3 picks into interior offensive linemen, which could very well mean Mustipher’s days are numbered.
Mustipher went from being a nice story in 2020 to having a seriously disappointing 2021 season, and the fact that he’s still here is a product of the Bears not going out and finding a set-in-stone type of replacement. That will change in 2023.