Chicago Bears: Yes, Things Looked Ugly, But Team Is Getting Healthy

The Chicago Bears haven’t looked very good during their preseason games but health was a major reason for that. With a healthier team, the team should look different.

The 2021 season is almost upon us! The Chicago Bears have one more preseason game before they have to make the big decisions on who stays and who goes on the roster. The coaches want to have the strongest possible team as they look forward to the Week 1 battle against the Los Angeles Rams.

The roster decisions are made more difficult by the health of the players. The Bears suffered a great number of injuries. Take the offensive line, for example. There have been about eight linemen who missed a number of practices and games due to injuries. That includes rookie tackle Teven Jenkins, who missed all of training camp. He’ll also likely miss the entire season after he had back surgery.

As a result of health problems, the product on the field during preseason games hasn’t exactly been stellar. The offense struggles most of the time and the defense took a shellacking last week against the Buffalo Bills. The struggles made the fans feel a little queasy about the season.

The good news is that the Chicago Bears are now getting healthy. Many of the key players missing are now ready to go. That should help for the regular season. However, it won’t do much for the preseason finale since most of the starters and key players won’t play.

The Bears are activating right tackle Germain Ifedi off the PUP list today. James Daniels, Danny Trevathan, Eddie Goldman and Roquan Smith will also all be practicing — some good news on the injury front.

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— Kevin Fishbain (@kfishbain) August 23, 2021

As you can see from the tweet, the Bears got good news about players coming back. All the players named in the tweet are starters so that bodes well for the regular season. All of the fans’ “Sky is falling!” fears will subside.

In addition to Daniels coming back, the Bears also have Jason Peter s on board. Peters wasn’t injured, but the Bears signed him last week after announcing the Jenkins surgery. The future Hall of Fame tackle takes over for Jenkins. He will be one of the few starters to play in the game against the Tennessee Titans. He started practicing this week and one game should help him get into the swing of things.

Peters now replaces Elijah Wilkinson, who stepped in at left tackle. He doesn’t have much experience at that position and it showed. He now has a chance to go back to the right side (guard and tackle) and work more on the left side, just in case he’s needed there.

Additionally, Lachavious Simmons played at right tackle and he really struggled there. With Ifedi back, the right tackle spot is better. Ifedi did a very good job there when he took over after starter Bobby Massie went down to injury.

With the edge linemen now in, the offensive line should look much better. Whoever played quarterback for the Bears spent a lot of their time avoiding pressure from those edges. The interior of the line is already strong and having Daniels, the best lineman the Bears had last season before he went down, return makes that interior even better.

Having Trevathan, Goldman, and Smith return really lifts the defense. Trevathan and Smith are the starting inside linebackers and their presence helps put pressure on opposing offenses. Goldman is the big guy in the middle of the line. He is critical to the Bears’ run defense.

Yes, the Chicago Bears struggled during the preseason. Most of that was due to injuries. Now that some key players return, this team should look different and hopefully better.