Justin Fields' Availability for Buffalo in Question

The continued frustration over tackle Teven Jenkins' back injury has reached a point of no return for the Bears and now they have another injury issue occupying their attention.

It's quarterback Justin Fields.

The Bears are now without both of their top two draft picks. Coach Matt Nagy on Wednesday prior to practice said Fields is being held out of practices due to a groin injury, with the hope he'll be well enough to play on Saturday against Buffalo.

The Jenkins situation is far more serious. He was slated for Wednesday back surgery and the team will be without him until well into the season. That would be a best-case scenario. There is always the possibility he misses the entire season when a back injury is involved.

"I can't get into that because it could, for me, I'm learning too on that whole timeline thing," Nagy said. "It wouldn't be fair to the kid, either, to give an exact timeline.

"But to be able to know that the goal is to get him back this year is really where we're at right now."

Jenkins was able to go through offseason work at Halas Hall without a problem until the four days prior to the start of training camp when rookies were allowed to practice prior to the arrival of veterans. Jenkins had a college back injury that ended his career at Oklahoma State three games early.

"It's something new," Nagy said. "So this is something—we were aware of the back issues in college—but these are symptoms that are new.

"So this is something we're dealing with. He's at a point right now where we were trying different things to see if we could stay away from this. It's something that ended up getting to this point right now. When you get to the word surgery, obviously everyone gets concerned, you don't want to hear that. But the goal is to get him back this year. Once that happens, we're able to look back on this. But it's where we're at right now."

As for Fields, Nagy doesn't want to rule him out of the Buffalo game.

"I'd say it's too early to go there," Nagy said. "I just think that for him right now, again, we wanna be able to get to that point where he's able to play in that game. That's very important."

Nagy labeled the treatment of the situation with Fields as entirely precautionary.

"I would say if you are asking me a question are you being conservative or are you being aggressive? We're being super conservative," Nagy said.

Also missing practice on Wednesday was tight end Cole Kmet, who has a hamstring injury, and nose tackle Eddie Goldman with a back injury.

The Bears did get linebacker Roquan Smith, defensive end Akiem Hicks and edge rusher Robert Quinn back out on the field. Quinn has an ankle and back injury. Hicks left Tuesday's practice during warmups and the team offered no more explanation about it Wednesday other than Nagy saying, "He's back, so..."

Smith hasn't practiced in two weeks while Quinn missed just Monday and Tuesday following the ankle injury in Saturday's 20-13 win over Miami.

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