Matt Eberflus Goes Silent on Teven Jenkins

Considering the criticism leveled this offseason at the Bears wide receiver group and offensive linemen, the training camp couldn't be off to a worse start.

Between dropped and absent blockers, the Bears are doing nothing to instill confidence they could actually be better than everyone anticipates in their first year of a rebuild.

Add to the injury woes the fact they don't seem to want to disclose to fans what has happened to absent players.

On Friday coach Matt Eberflus did reveal center Lucas Patrick has a hand injury and a Sun-Times report said it was his thumb. It could keep him away a while and Illinois rookie Doug Kramer took over for him with the first team the last two days.

"One of the topics that is out there right now is obviously Lucas Patrick, and how we're going to disclose this is we're just gonna say, he hurt his right hand, and there is no timetable on the return, because we don't have to disclose that, so we're not going to give that out for anybody," coach Matt Eberflus said. "That's how it is.

"He injured his right hand and the reason I'm giving that out is he is going to be out for a little bit of time, so it's not just a soft tissue injury or something where he might be out a couple days. This is more than that, but we're not going to give timetables on that. With that, I'll open it up to questions."

This provided at least some information.

The situation with second-year tackle Teven Jenkins is far cloudier. He hasn't been at practice for two days, a year after he missed all of training camp and the first 11 games following back surgery.

"Yeah, so, again, he falls into that category where he's working through something with the trainers, OK, and it's a day-to-day thing with those guys," Eberflus said. "When he's able to return, he will return."

Cornerback Thomas Graham also is gone.

"Same. Same exact. He falls in that same category," Eberflus said. "We're not going to comment on the injury or anything like that."

The idea with not disclosing camp injury informations seems rather shaky, considering it's based on the regular season.

"Just competitive advantage," Eberflus said. "I don't want people in our division, I don't want people in the league looking at our roster saying, 'Hey, they're going to do this, do that,' with injuries.

"If you don't have to disclose an injury right now—which we do during the season, obviously—why would you? So, to me that's an in-house business. If something is significant where it's more than a week or something like that, we'll say it in here. We won't say an exact timetable to return, but we will disclose it."

The problem with this approach is there is no competition going on at the moment. On Sept. 11, a competitive advantage can mean something.

Regardless of media problems with the Bears policies, it's certain some Bears fans would want to know if Jenkins, their second-round pick last year, might have another back issue after surgery in 2021.

"Yeah. I understand the levels of concern. I get that," Eberflus said. "That doesn't make me disclose information, though."

Linemen Cody Whitehair and Riley Reiff didn't practice but it was what Eberflus called a veteran's day off for Whitehair and Reiff is still trying to work into the offense after he signed as camp started.

On the practice field, wide receiver Byron Pringle dropped a pass early after he had drops on Thursday, and early in practice a few other receivers had issues hanging onto it. Darnell Mooney didn't drop one, but he and Justin Fields failed to hook up their timing correctly on a throw over the middle in red zone full-squad scrimmaging and the ball sailed up into the air off his hand, where rookie cornerback Kyler Gordon picked it off.

Later, rookie safety Jaquan Brisker stepped in front of tight end Cole Kmet and intercepted Fields in the red zone.

"What I seen, I'm trying to show my disguise, just coming down and Cole crossed my face so I just took my eyes to his hips and then once I seen him get ready to catch the ball I just jumped in front of it, you know, made sure I caught the ball and just took it upfield," Brisker said.

For Brisker, it was a matter of keeping up with the other second-round rookie, Gordon.

"Once he got the first one I was like, 'I gotta get one now, I gotta get one,'" Brisker said. "So there's definitely a competition between everybody in the room with the corners and safeties and linebackers. You know, I'm definitely trying to be the takeaway king."

The takeaways weren't confined to interceptions of Fields, or interceptions at all. Another rookie defensive back made it 3-for-3 with seventh-rounder Elijah Hicks pulled a Peanut Tillman and got down low to knock the ball out of the hands of running back Demontre Tuggle in the red zone, then fell on it.

"Everything we have to do on defense has to be punching the ball or getting the ball back," Brisker said. "Whether that's punching the ball, stripping it or just taking it away in the air, as a defense it's always important to get the ball back to the offense so they can just do what they do. As long as we get more turnovers, we're gonna win."

Other Day 3 Practice Highlights

Lining Up: Without their veterans on the field, the offensive line had four rookies with Kramer, guard Ja'Tyre Carter, guard Zachary Thomas and tackle Braxton Jones. The only veteran was right tackle Larry Borom, who has all of eight NFL starts.

Without Roquan Smith available, strong side linebacker Matthew Adams has moved into the weak side position. When the Bears are in their base 4-3, they have Joe Thomas, the former Cowboys and Packers linebacker, playing the strong side.

Passing Fancy: Although Fields had the two picks, he recovered and made a pair of nice TD throws to Equanimeous St. Brown. The former Packers receiver, who is 6-foot-5, yanked one out of the arms of Gordon and another time ended a wild Fields scramble from one side of the field to the other by grabbing a throw over the top of Kindle Vildor.

Tight end Jake Tonges made a neat grab for a TD to end a drill on a pass from Trevor Siemian.

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