NEWSLETTER
We’ve made it through to the other side and have begun our preparations for Week 1 of the NFL’s regular season.
And so have the Chicago Bears.
With the first Week 1 practice of the Matt Eberflus era in the books, the Tribune’s Brad Biggs has good news to pass along from the injury front:
Biggs reports a handful of Bears players who had been sidelined due to various injuries were participants in Monday’s practice. Among them are wide receivers Velus Jones Jr. and Byron Pringle, as well as offensive lineman Lucas Patrick. Seeing this collection of players getting into the swing of things at the start of the practice weeks bodes well for their availability for Sunday’s game against the San Francisco 49ers.
Patrick has been dealing with a hand injury since late July. And it’s a significant one, too, seeing that it required surgical repair on his snapping hand. Biggs didn’t specify where Patrick was practicing, which feels like an important bit of information. Because if Patrick can’t properly snap it, then it could potentially change the dynamic of the starting offensive line because he would likely move to right guard. But at this point, I’m just happy to share good news that a Bears starting offensive lineman is healthy enough to be a practice participant again.
Same for the pair of injured Bears receivers. Pringle went down with a quad injury in early August, which Head Coach Matt Eberflus though would keep him “out for some time” this summer. And it did, as today’s practice marks the first such event for Pringle in 30 days. Then there is Jones, who left the Bears’ preseason game against the Seahawks with an undisclosed injury. It had been 18 days since Jones was last getting into the action with his teammates. Again, it’s good that the arrow is pointing up when it comes to the health of this receiver tandem.
It wasn’t a perfect health report from the Bears, as defensive lineman Dominique Robinson (who has also been dealing with an injury since the Preseason Week 2 win) was a non participant. But in the end, there is more good news than bad on the injury report. I could get used to that.
