{"id":123929,"date":"2021-10-28T17:11:07","date_gmt":"2021-10-28T21:11:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/?p=123929"},"modified":"2021-10-28T17:14:07","modified_gmt":"2021-10-28T21:14:07","slug":"chicago-bears-evaluations-should-contiue-amid-injuries-and-covid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2021\/10\/28\/chicago-bears-evaluations-should-contiue-amid-injuries-and-covid\/","title":{"rendered":"Chicago Bears Evaluations Should Continue Amid Injuries and COVID"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/category\/nfl-teams\/bears\/\" target=\"_self\">Chicago Bears<\/a> prepare for their Week 8 matchup with the San Francisco 49ers evaluations of their season mustn\u2019t stop. It would be natural to want to grant them some sort of pass at the moment. They deal with a rash of COVID that has even kept head coach Matt Nagy away from the team.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">On the injury front, the big story wasn\u2019t that Larry Borom would return to practice or that Teven Jenkins is \u201cright around the corner\u201d, per offensive tackle Jason Peters.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/M\/MackKh00.htm?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Khalil Mack<\/a>\u2019s foot injury that threatens to keep him out of Sunday\u2019s contest<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>Injuries, COVID Can&#8217;t Keep Chicago Bears Brass from Making Tough Evaluations<\/h2>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Bad News Bears<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Nagy conducted his first presser of the week from his car while announcing that he would be away from the team after testing positive for COVID. The Bears have already had several players miss time due to testing positive for the virus. Running back Damien Williams just came off of the list.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Jimmy Graham, Elijah Wilkinson, and Robert Quinn remain on the list.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Still, that news was better received than the Mack news despite both being potentially catastrophic.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The former All-Pro has been dealing with the issue for a couple of weeks and has rarely practiced. He was their lone \u2018DNP\u2019 on Wednesday\u2019s injury report. There is some concern that it could even be an extended absence should he miss this contest.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Chicago is currently tied for first in sacks. But Mack and Quinn account for over 54 percent of their sack total. Second-year man Trevis Gipson is having a nice sophomore campaign but only has two sacks and little in the way of a running mate should both of the Bears EDGE rushers miss the game.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">San Francisco is currently 27th in total offense.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That is still three spots better than the Bears. But they\u2019ve also allowed just 11 sacks on the season. It\u2019s hard to see the Bears cracking that tough offensive line without either Mack or Quinn.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Bears?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#Bears<\/a> Thursday injury report: <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/gNBDtTy0MW\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/gNBDtTy0MW<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Bears Communications (@BearsPR) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BearsPR\/status\/1453803631950667777?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">October 28, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Coaching Matters<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We won\u2019t try to pretend that Nagy has been good. The fear is that what if he is the best of a bad situation, though? While we\u2019ve never seen Special Teams Coordinator Chris Tabor at the helm during the regular season but he did the job when Nagy had to miss time during the summer. We have seen Bill Lazor as a head coach in the NFL.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hoping he retains playcalling duties is probably as far as we should go.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It lends itself to envisioning what could happen in the (unlikely) event Nagy is fired before the season\u2019s end.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the meantime, the Bears operations on the sideline will be something to watch. Especially after they\u2019ve had a few communications issues that have led directly to turnovers in recent weeks. Word is there was another staff member to test positive as of Thursday.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We can lament Nagy\u2019s job on gamedays but this is uncharted territory.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The other part of the equation is that fans shouldn\u2019t assume a good outing this weekend hurts the embattled head coach in any way. It wouldn\u2019t be hard for this ownership group, in particular, to look at that and say he\u2019s built such a strong foundation, thus, reinforcing their faith in him to lead the team.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">How do we know? Because that is essentially what they told us at their end-of-season press conference when they announced Nagy and general manager Ryan Pace would return.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Big Stretch<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The next two weeks are pivotal for the Bears and the guys running the show. If they can\u2019t get the win this weekend, they set themselves up to potentially not have a better chance at one until three weeks from now when they\u2019ll face the Detroit Lions for the second time this season this time on the road.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Beyond that, the New York Giants in Week 17 are the only other team they\u2019ll face with a losing record.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Next week it\u2019s a trip to Pittsburgh to take on the 3-3 Steelers. That is another game against an offense that isn\u2019t explosive but it\u2019s still better than the Bears current plan of attack. The defenses are also comparable when healthy.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We knew this was a tough schedule months ago.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What cannot happen now is for there to be a caveat on this season for the current regime. Whatever decision would be made about their future in a healthy, normal season needs to be made after this one. It would seem as if the staff knows that as well. Otherwise their focus on winning turns from keeping guys motivated into delusion.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan has recently come under some fire, as has San Francisco general manager John Lynch, for their shortcomings in recent years. This despite dealing with a rash of injuries every year and not quite figuring out the quarterback position.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sound familiar?<\/span><\/p>\n<p>[pickup_prop id=&#8221;14036&#8243;]<\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Bears Evaluations Should Continue<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Except that is also a team that was in the Super Bowl just three short years ago. If they can have the heat turned up in a season in which they selected a quarterback early in the draft and dealt with a myriad of injuries, why can\u2019t the Bears front office?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">After four years, a timeline by which we were told the Matt Nagy offense would have taken hold, they are worst off now than when they hired him production-wise.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">With the quarterback of the future in the building, they cannot let sentimentality for the person (who by all accounts is decent) cloud their judgment of the failures on the field. As the weeks go and we get more tidbits like Allen Robinson partially pinning him and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/F\/FielJu00.htm?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Justin Fields<\/a>\u2019 struggles to get on the same page on their not getting many reps together in training camp.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They have said they are getting together more going forward.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But it is a process the Bears could and should have helped along. Especially with a coach who has proven to have a quick hook for his quarterback when he has \u201chis guy\u201d waiting behind him.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Facing a team that edges them in nearly every statistical category, they will have to steal one without their coach on the sideline. That shouldn\u2019t stop him from being graded on the outcome.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Main Photo:<br \/>\n<a id=\"VVUpbBjGRrVATFWfiFRhww\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1236134596\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'VVUpbBjGRrVATFWfiFRhww',sig:'h992jP8Yc_eMJufzE8ppN57-_wZs5dypjVal76HutF8=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'1236134596',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As the Chicago Bears prepare for their Week 8 matchup with the 49ers it is important that evaluations of their season don\u2019t stop.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2879,"featured_media":123934,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[54,23],"tags":[7657,7544,6990,358,3385,2265,997],"class_list":["post-123929","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-editorials","category-bears","tag-bears-featured","tag-chicago-bears-roster","tag-justin-fields","tag-khalil-mack","tag-matt-nagy","tag-mitchell-trubisky","tag-nick-foles"],"modified_by":"Josh Buckhalter","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123929","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2879"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=123929"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123929\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/123934"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=123929"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=123929"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=123929"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}