Could Cody Whitehair be the Bears’ most important player Sunday?

At some point this season, center Cody Whitehair realized that, as long as he snapped the ball consistently, he didn’t need to worry about where one of the Bears’ three starting quarterbacks put their hands to catch it.

There’s a metaphor in there somewhere.

“That’s the biggest thing: do yourself, be yourself,” he said. “Put it in the same spot every time and those guys can adjust.”

The rookie will have to do some adapting of his own Sunday, snapping a rock-hard ball in sub-zero wind chill against a Packers defense convinced the Bears will run the ball.

In that sense, he’ll be one of the most important players on the field.

In Week 7, the Packers opted to keep a speedy nickel package on the field, even when the Bears countered with a jumbo, three tight-end package. The center’s ability to find the middle linebacker Sunday — and, in some cases, catch up to him — will be key if the Bears want to top their last rushing effort in the rivalry series. The Bears ran 18 times for 69 yards, with Jordan Howard logging only seven carries for 22 yards. The game plan went out the window in the second quarter, though, when Hoyer broke his left arm.

Sunday needs to be better.

“Any time you run the ball, that’s a lineman’s favorite part of the game, I guess,” Whitehair said. “In situations like that when the weather’s bad and the team knows you’re going to run the ball and you run it effectively, it makes you feel good.”

That the rookie’s been mentioned so rarely this season is a testament to Whitehair’s play. His performance rivals that of fellow rookies Leonard Floyd, a first-round pick, and Howard, a 1,000-yard-rusher-to-be. It’s made all that much more remarkable by the fact Whitehair moved to center, a position he didn’t play in college, one week before the season.

The second-round pick has played all but two snaps of the dreary year. Only left tackle Charles Leno, who’s played all 815 downs, can claim more.

Coach John Fox praises Whitehair’s maturity and preparedness, even if his insistence on wearing shorts outdoors during Friday’s practice and plan to wear no sleeves Sunday, in the coldest game of his career, might indicate otherwise.

He started the season with Pro Bowlers on either side of him — guards Kyle Long and Josh Sitton — and learned to take control before backups Ted Larsen and Eric Kush stepped in because of injury. Using his pre-snap calls to command the offensive line has been Whitehair’s biggest point of growth, offensive coordinator Dowell Loggains said. Playing alongside four different guards this season hastened his evolution, too.

“Being in adversity, it’s helped me mature and grow a little bit faster than maybe a rookie that has a little more help on that kind of stuff,” he said.

The Bears have pushed Whitehair as a Pro Bowl possibility. He can prove it Sunday.

“We don’t talk about him enough,” Loggains said. “Because he’s a really good football player.”