Remote Preparation and Walkthroughs Only

To hear all the Bears coordinators with COVID-19 talk, one of the biggest challenges this week while they try to do their job remotely is to avoid yawning.

They're getting a little bored and stir crazy as they wait out the illness.

"I've watched a lot of film and stare out the window a lot. It's frustrating," special teams coordinator Chris Tabor said, before adding that the nice weather had him thinking about actually going out for a walk.

"That's gonna be the big activity today," he said.

The coordinators keep working remotely as coach Matt Nagy had done the week of the San Francisco game when he had the illness. The challenge of getting the team ready to face Minnesota on Monday without actual practices is a real one.

Neither Tabor nor defensive coordinator Sean Desai reported much in the way of symptoms and offensive coordinator Bill Lazor called it similar to feeling like he had a regular chest cold.

"I've obviously been a lot sicker so hopefully this passes and I know the NFL is coming out with new rules about return, so hopefully things clear up here fast," Lazor said.

The league is considering tweaking the rules to make for earlier returns by vaccinated, asymptomatic players who test positive, according to a report by Mark Maske of the Washington Post.

Presumably this would apply to coaches as well.

To return, the coaches and the 11 Bears who still are on the reserve/COVID-19 list must test positive twice in one day.

The Bears had 12 players with COVID-19 but got one back Friday when tackle Elijah Wilkinson came off the list. He had been on it for almost three weeks and wasn't part of this recent surge in cases. He could help with the problem they face at tackle if Jason Peters misses the game due to a high ankle sprain.

#Bears Friday injury report: pic.twitter.com/bw9pgPDmIh
— Bears Communications (@BearsPR) December 17, 2021

Coaches in the NFL are vaccinated unless they had some medical issue preventing it. There is hope that with the game not scheduled to be played until Monday, some players and the coordinators could pass out of protocol and participate against the Vikings.

The real chore is making sure the players are ready to face the Vikings without actual practices. On Thursday and Friday they held walk-throughs and have meetings virtually, but no actual practice.

"Yeah, well, you know, we've kind of been through this rodeo a little bit over the last year," Desai said. "And so we're just operating kind of as normal that way.

"We've got a pretty good operation in terms of Zoom and how to manage Zoom, and we've game-planning that way, been meeting with the staff on our normal game-plan schedules and we've been meeting with the units similarly. So we've kind of operated as normal."

Going solely on walk-throughs can't hurt anyone physically at this point in the year, when about every player has some sort of ache or pain. However, a team can't play the game virtually.

"I think you know mentally you've got to be a pro about it," tight end Cole Kmet said. "I think there's a lot of things you can do during the week in terms of film study, the walk-throughs and kind of get with your coaches that help you prepare.

"I think the timing of it obviously is never good. But better to have this in Week 15, I think, or whatever it is than Week 3. You know, kind of have a little bit better understanding for guys (of the offense) later in the season."

The Bears went without a practice and with only walk-throughs before they beat Detroit 16-14 on Thanksgiving. Last year they had plenty of Zoom meetings.

Some players are staying positive about returning. Safety Eddie Jackson is one of those who has shown little in the case of symptoms.

"Yeah, he says he feels fairly fine," safety Tashaun Gipson said. "It's one of those weird cases where a guy feels fine but pops up COVID positive. We talked on Zoom today. We are checking in and seeing how those guys feel, him and Artie (Burns). None of those guys are feeling terrible. It's just weird how this thing came down and hit our team."

The Bears have the added problem of eight players with illness that wasn't COVID-19. Kmet was one of those and reported he felt better on Friday.

"We understand that, hey, granted, things are going on beyond our control that we can't control," Gipson said. "But at the same time, we got to do what we need to do to play a football game and win a football game. That's our mindset right now."

It's just that they're taking a different route to get there.

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