Cody Whitehair

BIOGRAPHY

Cody Whitehair was born on July 11th, 1992, in Kearney, Nebraska. He is a guard in the NFL.

Whitehair attended Abilene High School; he was a four-year letter winner at Abilene High School where he was a two-way lineman for the Cowboys football varsity. In his senior year, he was named to PrepStar magazine's All-Midlands Region team, was also earned All-Kansas 4A honors from the KFBCA and Varsity Kansas. He helped lead the Cowboys to a combined 31-11 record in four seasons. Finished the senior season with 140 pancake blocks and recorded 81 total tackles 41 solos, 40 assisted with 15 sacks.

He played college football for the wildcats at Kansas State University; after redshirting his first year at Kansas State in 2011, Whitehair became a starter at guard in 2012, he started the season opener at right tackle before starting nine-straight at left guard and finishing up the regular season at right tackle. He was named a Freshman All-American by Phil Steele and to the ESPN.com All-Big 12 team. In 2013 he started in all the games of the season and earned A Midseason All-Big 12 honoree by Phil Steele.he started every game on the 2014 season, Whitehair helped K-State tally 30 rushing touchdowns, the 10th most in school history. He earned Second Team All-Big 12 honors from both the league's coaches and the Associated Press and was also a member of the Outland Trophy and Lombardi Award watch lists. During the 2015 season, he was named team captain and started in all 13 games at left tackle; he Helped K-State rank second nationally in red-zone offense (94.5-percent) and 18th in passing yards per completion (14.12). Also helped the Wildcats rush for 29 touchdowns, which was just one shy of entering the school's top-10 list and blocked for six rushing touchdowns against TCU, which was tied for the fourth-most in school history. He earned First-Team Academic All-Big 12 honors and First Team All-Big 12 honors, the first first-team honor of his career.

Whitehair was selected in the second round, 56th overall by the Chicago Bears in the 2016 NFL draft. After starting at left guard during the preseason, Whitehair was moved to the starting center position after the team signed veteran guard Josh Sitton. He went on to start all 16 games at center and was named to the PFWA All-Rookie Team. During the 2017 season, he Started 16 games; 12 at center, two at left guard, two at right guard. In 2018, Whitehair played every offensive snap he was the only Bears player on either side of the ball to participate in every down, and he was named to the 2019 Pro Bowl, becoming the first Bears center since Olin Kreutz to play in the all-star game.

Before the 2019 season, Whitehair moved to left guard, while that position's starter James Daniels shifted to center.

In 2022, Whitehair suffered a knee injury in Week 4 and was placed on injured reserve on October 5, 2022. He was activated on November 4.