Roquan Smith, Darnell Mooney Questionable for Playoff Game
The Bears are holding out hope they could get back some of their injured players for the playoff game against the New Orleans Saints, including linebacker Roquan Smith.
Smith, wide receiver Darnell Mooney and cornerback Jaylon Johnson are questionable for Sunday's game on Friday's injury report, although only Johnson among this group was able to practice this week. He went through limited practices each day and could see his first action since suffering a shoulder injury against Houston four weeks ago.
Smith has an elbow injury and Mooney an ankle injury, both suffered last week against Green Bay. The Bears could still come out with a revised injury report on Saturday or simply count them as game-day inactives on Sunday.
The only player ruled out so far is cornerback Buster Skrine, who has been out four weeks after a concussion, the sixth reported one of his NFL career.
Also on the injury report for the Bears is Smith's replacement, Josh Woods due to a strange double injury combination of a toe and a glute. He is questionable after going through a limited practice the last two days.
It's the kind of situation which could make defending against Alvin Kamara difficult, to say the least.
"He’s playing at a dominant level," coach Matt Nagy said of Smith, who made All-Pro second team. "It's not just like a good, he’s not just playing like a good player or a great player. He's playing, there's complete domination in the way he's playing.
"I mean, he's playing on another level. And so, when you lose that, that's a part of football. And I think whoever the next guy up that has to step up and go in there and do their thing, we understand that. And it's our job as coaches, too, to know and see that and work around that work to that players' strengths. And you can’t say that that player is Roquan, because they’re not, so you've got to work to that players’ strengths. Then it’s the other 10 players around that have to be able to do the same thing."
The overall Bears injury situation improved since Thursday after a few injured players were able to do more on Friday than on Thursday.
Wide receiver Allen Robinson (hamstring) and cornerback Duke Shelley (knee) went through limited practice on Friday and both have been removed from the injury report so they will play.
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