Bears Emerge from Cuts on Better Footing

No doubt there will be plenty of teams operating a 3-4 defense looking at former Bears defensive end Trevis Gipson, who had 10 total sacks over the last two seasons.

Minnesota, the L.A. Chargers and even Green Bay might be a few.

The Bears are finished with him, though, just as they are with former starting cornerback Kindle Vildor. That's two more players from the Ryan Pace era discarded as the team head toward regular season with what coach Matt Eberflus says is a healthy roster except for Teven Jenkins.

Or at least they're a healing roster if they're not entirely healthy.

"Everybody looks to be healthy right now," Eberflus said. "Looks good. The one guy that's still week to week is Teven. Again, we'll work through that process as we go."

Jenkins' injury has been reported as calf-related in both legs. The rest of the players who sat out most of training camp and preseason, such as defensive end DeMarcus Walker, guard Nate Davis, tackle Darnell Wright, as well as injured safeties Jaquan Brisker and Eddie Jackson, should be ready to face Green Bay Sept. 10 in the opener.

With all the injuries they have faced, it's causing plenty of questions about Eberflus' HITS principle.

Are they practicing too hard? He doesn't think so and doesn't even regard this as a large number of injuries, even with more than half the offensive line missing the preseason finale and Walker sitting almost all of training camp.

"I would say that we're middle of the road in terms of injury," Eberflus said of the camp health issues. "We looked at the data in terms of the league this year. So we were right there where average was."

Davis' situation has been sketchy.

There have been reports he doesn't enjoy the harsh criticism associated with loafing in Eberflus' HITS principle. The Bears coach isn't worried about Davis' commitment.

"I've seen what kind of player he is, the intensity he brings to the line," said Eberflus, whose Colts defenses used to face the former Tennessee Titan twice a year. "When he's been in, he's looked great. He's been in there looking good on his pass sets, his jumps to the second level in the run game.

"So he's looked really good in there. Like I said, the process will take care of itself, and he'll be ready to go. My past experiences with him, he's our kind of guy."

The defensive side has been hit just as hard as the offensive line but apparently Brisker, Walker, Jackson and middle linebacker Tremaine Edmunds all are returning to face the Packers. That's not really the problem.

The issue is they haven't been playing together or practicing together. If they get all of the starters on the field for practices next week, it will be the first time this has happened.

They didn't have Yannick Ngakoue prior to Aug. 4 and after that he has been practicing on a limited basis while they were without Jackson, Brisker and Edmunds.

"We saw Yanny a couple times in practice," Eberflus said. "We saw him in a little action there, so it's limited right now. Do you wish you would have saw more, sure, definitely. I wish they were going the whole time but that wasn't in the cards this particular training camp."

Cornerback Kyler Gordon said not playing together can be overcome.

"I dont really have any doubts as far as whether we're going to gel," cornerback Kyler Gordon said. "I've seen each player do something special individually and add or contribute to this defense. I think a lot of people are curious about it but as a defense and for people who have been here in the building like I have, there's not a lot of doubt about the players that we have. I feel good about it."

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