NEWSLETTER
One Bears player I miss watching this year is Tarik Cohen.
At the peak of his powers, he is one of the team’s best and most entertaining players. Electric with the ball in his hands. Elusive when being run down by defenders. Dynamic in the open field. He can run. He can catch. And he has even thrown a touchdown pass. When healthy, Cohen is a ball of fun and an absolute joy to watch. There is never a dull moment when Cohen is on the field.
Unfortunately, an ACL injury that cut short Cohen’s 2020 season is still problematic in 2021. So much so, that Cohen has yet to see the field after having surgery nearly 14 months ago.
Bears Head Coach Matt Nagy was asked about Cohen, and whether the injured running back was making progress in his rehabilitation. And while Nagy was able to confirm Cohen is still on the road to recovery, he didn’t make it seem as if his return was imminent:
“This is a guy who comes in literally every single day and rehabs over, and over, and over. So, as we kinda see where he’s at, is it something where you get to a point where it’s longer than maybe you expected initially, yeah. But he knows that. We all understand that. And the only thing he can do is attack it every day, and just kinda see where is it at. And then for us, as we communicate with him, and our trainers, and doctors, we know what he was years ago and even last year fully healthy. Now the goal is OK, let’s get him back. But let’s do it at the right time. And whenever that time is, he’s gonna tell us, the trainers are gonna tell us. To answer the question, big picture, would we have loved to have him back sooner? Yeah, but that’s not the case right now. And that’s OK. He’s working his tail off to get better.”
Even though we have an idea what an average timetable for a return from an ACL injury is, no two players’ recovery from this injury is the same. Hence, Cohen’s bounce back is taking longer than fans (and Cohen himself) would like. There have been moments where Cohen has been on the sidelines, and talking it up at practice, but no detailed health updates. Although, I must say it is good to hear Nagy highlight how Cohen continues to work hard at making his way back. And it is encouraging to hear that the 2018 All-Pro is engaged in meetings. But it is such a bummer that he is unable to be back on the field with his teammates and impacting games.
At this point, it seems unlikely Cohen will return this season. And because that is up in the air, doubt is starting to creep into my head that we’ll see Cohen in a Bears uniform again.
While the passing game could use someone with Cohen’s versatility, and the return game (at points) has suffered without him, Chicago’s ground game remains strong. The David Montgomery-Damien Williams-Khalil Herbert trio has been solid. Everyone has a role and fills it nicely. When one can’t give it a go, it always seems as if someone is there to pick up the slack. It’s one of the few offensive strengths this team has. And because this is a business, I can’t help but wonder if the Bears would try to move Cohen’s off their books to create a little extra cap space.
Chicago could create $2.25 million in cap space by cutting Cohen next offseason, per OverTheCap.com. It would come with a dead money hit of $3.5 million. But it would also come with the not-so-easy-to-swallow optics of cutting a player with an injury. For what it’s worth, we should remember the Bears did right by Zach Miller when he was rehabbing his serious leg injury. So don’t go creating that cap space just yet.
At the end of the day, we just want to see Tarik Cohen do stuff like this again:
I can’t wait to see Tarik Cohen do stuff like this again to would-be @NFL tacklers. pic.twitter.com/8NcAZNAJSK
— Bleacher Nation Bears (@BN_Bears) May 21, 2021
I miss watching Tarik Cohen run in the open field. pic.twitter.com/RTjsdLFryP
— Bleacher Nation Bears (@BN_Bears) October 21, 2021
By virtue of his 127.8 passer rating, 66.7 TD% and 0.0 INT%, the correct answer is Tarik Cohen. https://t.co/PlKvRgv8P2 pic.twitter.com/J42mKuW5HB
— Bleacher Nation Bears (@BN_Bears) June 24, 2020
And if it takes a little longer because there is a variance in returning from serious ACL injuries, then so be it.
For more from Nagy, you can watch his most recent briefing below:
