Sam Mustipher Stays Focused Despite Moving Target

Sam Mustipher hasn't backed down and no one would expect it from him, either.

The Bears offensive lineman had been held in high esteem by the former group of Halas Hall decision makers and they elevated him to starter from the practice squad after he refused to quit on himself or the team.

Now he's fighting for his NFL life again at right guard, a position he hadn't started at since high school.

"I've loved competition my entire life, every stage that I've been in that I've had to compete for a job," Mustipher said Monday after training camp practices resumed for the Bears. "I've never been, you know, the strongest, fastest, most athletically gifted guy so I just hang my hat on the things that (are) being willing to do the other things that other people aren't willing to do.

"Competition, it can bring the best out of some people, it can bring the worst out of some people. I feel like throughout my life it's done the former."

First he was competing at guard with Dakota Dozier when Lucas Patrick had been brought in from the Green Bay Packers to start at center. Then a knee injury removed guard competition Dakota Dozier but the Bears gave Mustipher another layer of difficult competition in veteran free agent Michael Schofield.

When Patrick went out with a thumb injury, it seemed an ideal time to move Mustipher back to his original spot but the Bears on Monday hadrookie Doug Kramer at center and Mustipher with the backups at center. Ja'Tyre Carter is competing at right guard with Schofield.

"That's what you play the game for," said Mustipher, who has a incredibly positive attitude about the way he's being shuffled to the back of the deck. "You don't play it to kind of just sit here and do one thing one day.

"If you get a bunch of guys in the (offensive line) room who love to compete, who love to push each other to get better, and it's not even just about I'm not gonna give him tricks or I'm not gonna give him tools or I'm not gonna let him know 'hey if the backers align this way, call something else. Like, I'm gonna let everybody know whatever I see on film and that's what they’re gonna do for me. That's what you want. You want the room to succeed and that's cool."

It might, at the very least, be to Mustipher's benefit to know which position he's even competing to win.

Now he's back at second-team center but he did get to snap the ball with the first team on some scrimmage plays.

"I'm just going to do whatever it takes to help the Bears win," Mustipher said. "Wherever they need, I'll be at. So I try not to look at it like that. I just kind of try to take it day by day and wherever they need me that's where I'm going to be at and that's my job."

If it's guard, he has less on the plate. Obviously there's no snapping the ball and he's not in charge of line calls.

"You know, there's a little bit more space at guard so understanding how different angles (work), it kind of helps when I went back to center, too, understanding how different angles work," Mustipher said. "You're a little bit more off the ball than you are at center. You know, then I got a chance to go a little bit of left (guard) and a little bit of right, which has been cool. You kind of balance out your body a little bit."

Mustipher has studied film of former Saints guard Larry Warford and current Buccaneers guard Shaquille Mason to get a better idea of how to play the position because he considers both of those linemen similar body types.

The position switch is all something he simply takes in stride.

"I mean it's not that difficult," Mustipher said. "That's our job. That's what we were called to do. I'm going to study. Like I said, I just want to help the Bears win football games.

"So whatever it takes for me to be successful at either of those positions wherever they want to put me at, I'm going to do what it takes."

Mustipher's position might change daily in camp, but his attitude never does.