NEWSLETTER
Knowing that there was no sense in rushing Tarik Cohen’s return to the Bears, Chicago’s football team is making a prudent move ahead of training camp’s opening.
The Bears have placed RB Tarik Cohen on PUP as he continues to recover from his ACL injury suffered last season.
— Field Yates (@FieldYates) July 25, 2021
ESPN’s Field Yates reports Cohen will begin training camp on the PUP list. This designation is for players who are suffering or recovering football-related injuries, but aren’t quite ready to start camp. Cohen is making his way back from season-ending surgery that came after suffering an ACL injury in Week 3. So, naturally, it’s only fitting for the Bears to take it slowly when it comes to Cohen’s road to recovery.
The 25-year-old running back figures to be a key piece of the offense once he is fully healthy and up to speed. We saw what Cohen could do when healthy back in 2018 when he came away with 1,169 scrimmage yards and 8 touchdowns in a year when he earned first-team All-Pro honors. Cohen’s production took a step back in 2019, but the Bears still saw enough in his first three years to give him an extension early in 2020. That investment is enough to keep my hopes high for whenever Cohen returns to action.
In the meantime, the Bears will roll with David Montgomery and Damien Williams at the top of the running back depth chart. Khalil Herbert, Artavis Pierce, and Ryan Nall will take reps, too. As for the return game, Herbert and fellow rookie Dazz Newsome are in line to field kicks and punts. All in all, I tip my cap to the Bears for being proactive in addressing depth concerns at these positions. So much so, I’m not overly concerned with when Cohen comes back (so long as he makes his way back). And when Cohen returns, those groups will have that much more firepower.
UPDATE – Dazz Newsome is joining Cohen on the PUP list:
We have placed RB Tarik Cohen and WR Dazz Newsome on the PUP list.https://t.co/XPP7lsyBoO
— Chicago Bears (@ChicagoBears) July 25, 2021
Newsome, a sixth-round pick in the 2021 NFL Draft, went down with a collarbone injury during OTAs in early June. The expectation when Newsome suffered the injury was that he would be back around the start of training camp. Collarbone injuries tend to have an eight-week recovery period, so maybe he won’t be down for long.
