The Day After: Bears Injuries Appear Less Severe

Perhaps looking for anything positive to grasp on to coming out of Sunday's 41-10 disaster in Kansas City, Bears coach Matt Eberflus turned to the injury report.

At least it wasn't horrible.

Middle linebacker Tremaine Edmunds had been with team medical officials at one point in the second half but their defensive captain is apparently fine. He was in for 56 plays, or 73% of plays.

"He actually could've come back in at the very end of the game," Eberflus said. "I left (Jack) Sanborn in there. He was playing fine in that particular game, in that moment where that game was. We kept him out. Sanborn got some good reps."

Sanborn also got the team's first interception of the year then.

The other bit of good news came about cornerback Tyrique Stevenson. He had been checked for a concussion after delivering a big first-quarter hit, didn't have a concussion and left the game anyway afterward with illness.

The concussion concern proved only to be some neck soreness on a play when Stevenson made his hit and got an unnecessary roughness penalty for his efforts while trying to prevent a touchdown.

"It was a heck of a hit on the side," Eberflus said. "I thought the penalty could go either way."

A back injury suffered by wide receiver DJ Moore on the touchdown pass he caught near the game's end is not a serious issue. He told reporters this after the game. Nor is Justin Fields injured, according to Eberflus. Fields had been shaken up at one point after a hit just before the first Bears points on Cairo Santos' field goal, but he finished the game.

The one real concern for Wednesday, barring something that pops up suddenly later the way Braxton Jones' neck injury did when he went on IR, was cornerback Jaylon Johnson's hamstring injury.

It's rarely a matter of a few days with those. Slot cornerback Josh Blackwell had one two weeks ago and missed the Tampa Bay game, tried to start against the Chiefs and only was in for nine plays as Greg Stroman had to replace him.

Safety Jaquan Brisker went out briefly but returned. At one point, they had four backups and a third-string practice squad player manning their five defensive back spots.

Cornerbacks Terell Smith and Jaylon Jone were pressed into service after Stevenson and Johnson left the game.

"Honestly I thought the DB's played well, the D-linemen made some good plays, I thought Smitty had a good game, you know the guy's come in and worked his butt off," linebacker T.J. Edwards said. "I thought (Stevenson) has been really good. I thought Jaylon and Elijah Hicks, you know all those guys had, made some really good plays in this game.

"That's what it's going to take is those guys stepping up and Smitty included, the way he's worked his butt off, just showing up and it's really good to see."

Of course, all of this positive injury news comes with an asterisk attached. It's Monday.

Last week after Sunday and Monday Eberflus was calling safety Eddie Jackson's foot injury positive news, and he never practiced last week, then didn't play Sunday.

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