It’s one of the rare Bears-less Sundays on the NFL calendar. The next one comes in Week 5, as the Bears have been dealt an early bye week, and the final one comes in Week 12 when Chicago travels for Detroit for Thanksgiving.
Usually, I’ll spend Sunday like this checking out what else is going on around the league, around sports, and around town. Days like today are good to decompress as a final move to get past last week’s loss and ramp up for Monday’s big game. But no matter how you enjoy your Bears-less Sunday, make sure you enjoy it to its fullest.
Don’t forget to set your fantasy lineups. And don’t forget to include Allen Robinson when you’re making your final decisions:
https://twitter.com/ChicagoBears/status/1041325843581165569
And don’t you dare sleep on that Bears defense:
Some pretty important news for both the Bears and Seahawks came from Saturday’s injury report. Right guard Kyle Long and cornerback Bryce Callahan are expected to play for Chicago on Monday after having their respective limitations in practice in recent days. Long missed a pair of practiced while nursing a sore ankle, while Callahan was limited with a knee injury. Both players practiced on Saturday and are listed as probable to play on Monday Night Football.
On the other side of the field, the news isn’t as good for Seattle. The Seahawks will be without three important starters. Linebackers Bobby Wagner and K.J. Wright, as well as wide receiver Doug Baldwin are OUT of the lineup because of their respective injuries. Those are three Pro Bowl players at three important lineup spots. Bears fans can probably relate more than others when it comes to having tough luck on the injury front. With that in mind, the Bears need to do to the Seahawks what other teams have done to banged-up Bears teams in recent years. This is a game the Bears need to emerge from with a win.
The Fighting Illini suffered a tough loss against South Florida, but the band sounded good:
The Bears are honoring Brian Urlacher at halftime of Monday’s game, but I think it would be neat for Soldier Field to have an intermission show featuring a marching band once in a while. I love the call-back to old-school football that comes when you see and hear a marching band take the field.
Speaking of Urlacher, he was re-united with Lovie Smith on Saturday afternoon at Soldier Field … just like old times:
Ah, yes. The ol’ fake fair catch play gets ’em every time:
https://twitter.com/SportsCenter/status/1041067572010131457
One week after suffering a knee injury that caused him to miss 14 plays in Week 1, Aaron Rodgers is expected to play against the Vikings on Sunday. ESPN’s Adam Schefter reports Rodgers will play despite the injury what once source describes to the NFL insider as “a pretty unusual injury that would keep most people out a while.” It was tough to imagine Rodgers not playing against Minnesota. After all, this wouldn’t be the first time Rodgers played on a game day without practicing. The guy is a gamer. It’s as simple as that.
As for what the future holds for his sprained knee:
The Browns released the following statement regarding wide receiver Josh Gordon’s future with the team on Saturday evening …
… But later on Saturday night, rumors popped up (via Adam Schefter) that the Browns would prefer to trade Gordon before having to release him. Why they would share a statement announcing his pending release before trying to trade him is highly questionable, but sometimes the Browns are gonna Browns.
NFL Network insider Ian Rapoport reports the Cowboys and 49ers are teams Gordon has eyes on joining.
This isn’t a great look, but it feels like this is just a snap shot of a complicated situation:
There was a time where there would have been a case for the Bears to make a push for Gordon, but this particular time and situation doesn’t feel right for such a move.
NEWSLETTER
