Missing Safety Returns for Bears

There's no reason to worry about Eddie Jackson.

The Bears safety missed the first day of voluntary minicamp, leading to all sorts of speculation about his future. Considering the way the Bears have gutted their roster, such speculation is not wasted energy this year.

However, Jackson was back on Wednesday and apparently one of the players who had conflicts keeping them from participating at the outset.

"It was good to see him out there," coach Matt Eberflus said after Wednesday's practice. "He looked quick in the drills. Looked fluid, looked real athletic. He was finishing well. Obviously we talked about that with him as well. And everybody. I thought he caught the ball well in drills. He has a good set of hands on him.

"I thought his vision was good in coverage from what I saw. So yeah, he looked good. Looked quick."

Jackson has gone two seasons without an interception after making 10 his first three seasons. None of that matters to Eberflus.

"Like I said way back when we first got here, it's a clean slate for him," Eberflus said. "So we look at that for sure. And we look at that through a positive lens—what can he do and what has he done on the positive side?

"That's what we're looking for with every player. Because if they can do it, they will do it. And it's our job as coaches to look at that and help them get to that point again."

Jackson lined up at times with safety DeAndre Houston-Carson, as newly acquired safety Dane Cruikshank is missing practices but present on the side. This indicates an injury but the Bears are not obligated to report injuries in offseason workouts.

Cruikshank missed three games last year on injured reserve at Tennessee with a knee issue but came back to play the final five games.

The lineup situation for the Bears remained much the same on Day 2 as on Day 1 of minicap, although Dakota Dozier had quite a few more plays with the first team offensive line at right guard than Sam Mustipher did. The situation was reversed on the first day.

The two tackles remained Larry Borom on the left side and Teven Jenkins on the right side.

What was interesting about the tackle pairing was the way Eberflus backtracked a bit on downplaying the significance of repetitions for players at specific positions.

On Tuesday, he said no one should become too obsessed with players at one position or other as experimentation goes on, but on Wednesday he did indicate it does mean at least something.

"Yeah, I think that's significant for everybody," Eberflus said. "If you're getting the first lineup role spots in terms of the reps, I think that's really good.

"They're getting all that teaching from C-Mo (line coach Chris Morgan), they're getting all those looks right now. Anybody that's in that position is getting quality reps, for sure. Those guys are working day-to-day."

Cornerback Jaylon Johnson, defensive linemen Robert Quinn and Mario Edwards Jr. and quarterback Nick Foles did not attend the workouts for a second straight day.

The Bears did get a look at their first-team offense lining up against their first-team defense for a dozen 11-on-11 plays and a dozen 7-on-7 plays.

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