Bears Add Starting Tackle to COVID-19 List

Starting right tackle Elijah Wilkinson and reserve linebacker Caleb Johnson on Sunday morning became the fourth and fifth players to go on reserve/COVID-19 in the last two weeks for the Bears.

The Bears continued to have issues with COVID-19 even as they readied to play Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Both right tackle Elijah Wilkinson and rookie linebacker Caleb Johnson had to be placed on the reserve/COVID-19 list on Sunday morning.

Wilkinson had been slated to start because of the knee injury to right tackle Germain Ifedi. Johnson was coming off a knee injury and was listed questionable for the game.

They are the fourth and fifth players in the organization to go into the NFL COVID-19 protocol in the last two weeks. Edge rusher Robert Quinn, running back Damien Williams and tight end Jimmy Graham have gone into it, as well as wide receivers coach Mike Furrey.

This could mean a start at right tackle for Alex Bars or possibly Lachavious Simmons or Arlington Hambright, the two second-year seventh-round picks.

Williams came off of it on Saturday and will be available to face the Buccaneers.

Johnson has been involved in five games and 73 plays this season, all on special teams.

Nagy on Friday said he didn't think there was an outbreak issue within the team regardless of all the cases, and now they are in better position to deal with the issue than last year when there was a mid-season problem with cases. 

"I think there was a lot of unknown; I feel like there's more known now," he said. "And so for us it's just a matter of now it's making sure that we're doing everything that we can to emphasize the mask, to emphasize taking care of yourself, to emphasize who you're around, who you're not around, all of that stuff so that you limit those chances and those risks. 

"Sometimes you know as you go through this you don't know where, when or how. But that's a part of it."

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