Bears' Injury Woes Get Even Worse as Another Receiver Leaves Practice Early

When it rains, it pours, and on a stormy Sunday afternoon in Chicago, injury woes continue to plague the Chicago Bears. Rookie wide receiver Zavion Thomas exited practice early with an athletic trainer and did not return. According to CHGO Bears reporter Adam Hoge, Thomas went down to the turf and grabbed at his knee before walking off with a slight limp.

The Bears' injury situation has quickly gone from merely annoying to the cusp of a full-blown emergency. Early last week, Coby Bryant was carted off from practice with a leg injury and is reportedly set to miss eight to 10 weeks. That was followed up by what are believed to be minor injuries to Montez Sweat and Braxton Jones, and then Luther Burden left training camp with an injury on Saturday. He's set to miss "a little bit of time", according to NFL insider Ian Rapoport.

Ben Johnson may need to recalibrate the intensity of his practices

I understand that football is an intense, physical sport. To win football games, a team needs to be tough, and the only way to play tough is to practice tough. That goes double when you get to the NFL. Head coach Ben Johnson has already made a reputation for himself as a tough head coach who will brook no softness.

However, surely there is a point where even an NFL head coach needs to re-evaluate how he runs his practices and see if there's a better way of doing things. Johnson's team is resilient, and they proved that on the field again and again in 2025, but has that reputation become a liability? With this many players going down in training camp, is it time for a soft reset?

With the exception of Coby Bryant, most of these other injuries appear to be minor, to the great relief of Bears fans. Nothing has been season-ending, but it doesn't take a catastrophic injury to ruin a player's entire season. Just look at Jaylon Johnson, who injured his groin last July and proceeded to miss most of the 2025 season. And not to alarm any Bears fans, but the early reports from Ian Rapoport are that Burden suffered a groin injury.

I'm not saying the Bears' coaching staff needs to package its players in bubble wrap and play flag football in practice. And injuries do tend to be completely random. But the Bears cannot continue taking injuries at this rate. Ben Johnson loves his tough practices, and they've served the Bears well thus far, but he may want to consider whether the intensity of training camp could be brought down a smidge.

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