Injuries, COVID-19 Ravage Bears Roster
The rash of Bears offensive line absences reached the guard position Thursday when they practiced after a day off.
Right guard James Daniels has a quad injury and was replaced with starters by Alex Bars, who started at times last season. The Bears already were without left tackle Teven Jenkins due to a back injury, right tackle Germain Ifedi due to a hip-flexor injury and swing tackle Elijah Wilkinson because he's on the reserve COVID-19 list. Third-string tackle Badara Traore was out Thursday with knee soreness after off-season knee surgery.
Coach Matt Nagy reported several other new injuries, including a quad injury to linebacker Josh Woods and hamstring injury to linebacker Joel Iyiegbuniwe. Combined with linebacker Christian Jones going on reserve COVID/19, it's easy to see why the Bears signed linebacker Alec Ogletree on Wednesday. In his first practice Thursday, Ogletree came up with an interception. Iyiegbuniwe was able to get on the field for a while despite his injury.
They also are without cornerbacks Artie Burns (quad) and Michael Joseph (hamstring). Also on the COVID list are long snapper Patrick Scales and nose tackle Eddie Goldman. None of the players being held back with injuries returned on Thursday, including safeties Eddie Jackson (hamstring) and Tashaun Gipson (quad) and edge rusher Robert Quinn (back).
Tight end Cole Kmet continued doing the long snapping on field goals for practice.
"After those snaps he had at Family Fest the other day, he came in and said, 'I'm not gonna lie, I was a little nervous going into this, coach,' " Nagy recalled about Kmet. "This was right after the period and when he was snapping and he only had like two high ones but the other ones were pretty good so who knows?"
Nagy said he had no idea initially how long Jenkins would miss when camp started. If he did, the Bears could have put Jenkins on the PUP list.
"These guys are all different in how they react to things and what they do," Nagy said. "To that question with Teven, again, I had no expectations. Every day is a new day for all these guys with the way their bodies go.
"I just know this, if you're not out there, it gives somebody an opportunity, right? At any position, forget just left tackle. It's right now in training camp, what a great time for people to know there's opportunities."
With three of the five starters sidelined for the offensive line, Nagy refuses to panic.
"Well, yeah, I mean, availability is real," he said. "We need guys to be available. But when you say 'concern,' I think for us, it's, 'OK, what's the opportunity?' With him being a draft pick, for us we understand, and he wants to be out there, but we can only control what he's doing with his body, his health with our trainers, and then whenever they tell us we roll with.
"In the meantime, if he's not out there, then other people get opportunities."
The COVID-19 situation is different because the players can fix it themselves with vaccinations, but not everyone has been vaccinated. The Bears haven't said who or how many are unvaccinated but Nagy has said they hit the 85% mark the league had wanted to see by the time camp started.
The league reported on Wednesday that at least 90% of players have now had at least one shot of the vaccine.
"We are not back to 2019 where things were normal," Nagy said. "We are not there. Until everybody says it's normal and there are going to be no issues then the guys have to expect that.
"On the front end, we have to learn what the rules are per the league of fully vaccinated vs. non-vaccinated and how that works. We're all kind of learning but I think our guys have been great so far, I really do. They are following all the rules and they are doing what they are supposed to do and they really have not talked about it too much."
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