Line Injuries Forcing Altered Bears Plans

The race is on for the Bears offensive line to gain full health by their Sept. 10 opener with Green Bay.

It's not one they're likely to win with so little time left. They'll simply have to settle for as close to 100% as possible because Teven Jenkins' leg injury is week-to-week and his injury was the first and most serious of the stack of them to hit the offensive line.

Bears offensive line coach Chris Morgan calls it dealing with a "fluid" lineup situation.

"When you say everything is fluid, you could get thrown a different curveball every day," Morgan said. "The health of your team is different every day. That's kind of what I meant by fluid Lucas has played center and he’s played it for other clubs, so he’s obviously versed at that position, too. You’re just looking at the best combination to put out there with the ones, and we feel that that right there is the best situation right now."

Without Jenkins, Cody Whitehair moved from center to left guard and had his own hand injury to overcome. Whitehair's ability to be a center or guard is a key to how they believe they can withstand these late changes to the offensive line plans they've had in place all offseason.

"We like where he is," coach Matt Eberflus said. "His hand is not a big issue, but we'll see where it goes. He's a day-to-day guy in terms of that (injury).

"We hope it heals fast and all those types of things and we'll see where it goes. We certainly like him at center and we like him at guard. It's good to have the combination and the flexibility to do both."

In the meantime they would need to lean on Lucas Patrick at center but he isn't playing due to injury. Second-year third-stringer Doug Kramer is handling it.

"He studies hard, he's very smart," tackle Braxton Jones said. "So to have a guy like that at center just come and do whatever he has to do to get the job done, I praise a guy like that."

Free agent Nate Davis isn't at right guard now because of an injury plaguing him since early in camp. He returned, then left again. In the meantime, Ja'Tyre Carter fills in here. Davis seems to be on the verge of a full-time return and Eberflus isn't worried about his time away affecting him as he tries to play with a new team.

"I think he falls into that category we just talked about, guys that have had a lot of playing time and they've played a lot of football at that position," Eberflus said.

Because he's played four years in Tennessee with a similar scheme, the Bears don't worry about the time he hasn't had within their offense this training camp.

The Darnell Wright injury at right tackle just happened this week but is another one Eberflus say doesn't worry him.

"He looks good. Yep," Eberflus said, concurring with Morgan.

They might all look good or improved, but in the third and final preseason game they won't be close to putting the planned offensive line on the field.

Last year they had to withstand seven different offensive lines and nine total changes to the line. And already they're on track to repeat this type of fluid situation.

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