Bears Injury Report: Lucas Patrick Good to Go

After more than a month away from Bears practices following thumb surgery, center Lucas Patrick is not even on their initial injury report of the season.

Apparently Patrick will play against the San Francisco 49ers, although none of the Bears players or coaches will say exactly where.

Quarterback Justin Fields may have inadvertently tipped off where Patrick will play when he said Wednesday he hasn't taken a snap from Patrick this week. The smart money would say guard.

Patrick a former Packers center and guard, could be playing right guard after all of the drama and build-up to the regular season over Teven Jenkins' move from tackle to right guard. Sam Mustipher would be at center then. Another option might be Cody Whitehair at center and Jenkins at right guard with Patrick at left guard but Whitehair hasn't played center in four seasons and Mustipher did it throughout training camp.

Patrick has his hand in a cast and was asked if he tried snapping with it that way.

"That's a great question," he said, leaving it right there without answering.

Patrick said his hand usage at guard is not much different than at center except for the snapping part of it.

"I still got to keep them inside the D-linemen," Patrick said. "I still got to win my hat (helmet) placement. I still got to keep leverage. It doesn't matter if it's center, guard or tackle or tight end. Like all the blocking up front, you're teaching hands inside and stay low. So pretty similar."

Patrick admitted to getting antsy while he had to watch teammates sweating it out at training camp. He stayed in the playbook at practice and otherwise.

"Just like I did as a younger player when I was a backup, you've got to take mental reps," Patrick said. "So I look at it all camp. I took 300-400 mental reps. So your brain's the biggest muscle, biggest tool to use and I tried to use that as much as I could."

The Bears did release an updated depth chart and it has Patrick at center and Jenkins at right guard, so perhaps this is the personnel usage in an ideal circumstance. But Patrick's thumb and cast isn't ideal.

The first injury report had a few other surprises on it.

Rookie wide receiver Velus Jones was unable to practice on Wednesday with a hamstring injury that has been plaguing him since back into preseason. Rookie defensive end Dominique has a knee injury and practiced on a limited basis. The biggest surprise was that was the extent of their injuries. They're nearly at full health.

The surprise in San Francisco is that tight end George Kittle is suffering from a groin injury and was held out of practice on Wednesday, according to Jose Luis Sanchez III of FanNation's All 49ers.

49ers Injury Report

TE George Kittle, did not practice (groin)

OL Daniel Brunskill, did not practice (hamstring)

LB Dre Greenlaw, limited practice (elbow)

Bears Injury Report

WR Velus Jones Jr., did not practice (hamstring)

DE Dominique Robinson, limited practice (knee)

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