The Bears released their first injury report ahead of Week 8’s game against the Chargers, and the report included several updates to key starters.
The biggest news was that Jaquan Brisker did not participate with an illness, Braxton Jones returned to practice for the first time since he injured his neck in Week 2, Darnell Wright was a DNP with both a shoulder and toe injury, and Roschon Johnson was able to participate in full as he recovers from a concussion. As expected, Justin Fields did not practice due to the dislocated thumb on his throwing hand.
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Brisker exited the Raiders game early and was evaluated for a concussion at the time, but he was cleared and did not enter the protocol. It’s unclear what illness he has. Meanwhile, Johnson still has one benchmark left to pass before he is cleared from the concussion protocol.
Now that Jones is back at practice, they have 21 days to activate him from injured reserve. Before they do that, they want to see that none of Jones’ movements are hampered and that his conditioning is good enough to play in a game. If the Bears do not activate Jones within the 21 days, they will need to shut him down for the rest of the season.
While Jones has been sidelined, the Bears have started Larry Borom at left tackle. Borom has struggled by allowing a pressure rate over 10% and has committed some costly penalties in relief. If Jones can return to the field, it could give the line an additional boost, but the Bears might still need to start Borom due to Wright’s injury. However, Wright missed one practice last week and was still able to play against the Raiders.
Elsewhere on the line, right guard Nate Davis was not able to practice with an ankle injury. Like Fields, this was expected as head coach Matt Eberflus said Davis would be unavailable throughout the week. Last week the Bears moved Teven Jenkins from left guard to right guard to replace Davis, then put Cody Whitehair at LG to replace Jenkins. It was a winning combination that created good lanes in the run game and gave Tyson Bagent good protection.
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Eddie Jackson was limited at practice after being a DNP last Thursday and Friday. In Week 6, Jackson re-aggravated a foot injury that cost him three games earlier in the year. That some foot injury kept him out of last week’s win.
Finally, the Bears opened up the 21-day practice window for defensive lineman Khalid Kareem. He hasn’t played in a game this season. Further, reserve offensive lineman Dan Feeney was limited with a knee injury. Backup cornerback Terell Smith will miss more time as he deals with mononucleosis.