The Bears got some good news as they began their week of practice to prepare for the Packers in Week 1. Other than Teven Jenkins, who will miss at least four weeks on injured reserve, the team is almost back to full health.
The team announced that safeties Eddie Jackson (ankle) and Jaquan Brisker (groin) were limited, along with defensive end DeMarcus Walker (calf). The only player who did not participate during Wednesday’s practice was Dylan Cole (hamstring).
Even though a few important players were listed as limited participants in the initial injury report, it’s an encouraging development for a team that dealt with many injury-related absences throughout training camp, including injuries to high profile players like Tremaine Edmunds, Chase Claypool and Brisker.
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Throughout the summer, Eberflus maintained that he is confident most players will be good to go for the regular season– even as initial “day-to-day” absences turned to “week-to-week” absences. However, there was some doubt about Brisker’s ability to play beside Eddie Jackson for the season opener.
“Two weeks ago couldn’t really do too much,” Brisker said on Monday. “Really wasn’t looking promising.”
Brisker got much better over the past couple of weeks, and now the Bears expect he’ll be ready to play in Week 1 as long as he ticks a few boxes over the course of the team’s padded practice on Wednesday.
“Just execution and I want to see the speed,” said Eberflus. “I want to see the speed that he’s able to play at, which he’s exhibited that over the last workouts and the last practice that we had. So just excited to see that and his communication with Eddie and Kyler (Gordon) and the rest of the defense. That’s been good, so just excited to see him going full speed.”
