Bears get good initial news to start the week regarding injured starter who left the game against the Panthers
The Chicago Bears entered Week 5 as one of the healthiest teams in the NFL but took a big blow after left guard Teven Jenkins was ruled out with an ankle injury.The extent of Jenkins' injury is still up in the air, as is his potential availability in Week 6 against the Jacksonville Jaguars. But, […]
The Chicago Bears entered Week 5 as one of the healthiest teams in the NFL but took a big blow after left guard Teven Jenkins was ruled out with an ankle injury.
The extent of Jenkins' injury is still up in the air, as is his potential availability in Week 6 against the Jacksonville Jaguars. But, head coach Matt Eberflus did provide some initial good news while talking to reporters on Monday.
Jenkins will travel with the rest of the team later today as the team heads to London, England for their Week 6 matchup. From there, the team will assess his status throughout the week.
After the game on Sunday, Eberflus went into detail about what the week of practice will look like in London. The team will land on Tuesday morning and will be off, then will hold a walk-thru practice on Wednesday before ramping up Thursday and Friday. That should hopefully give Jenkins plenty of time to recover leading up to the game.
If not, the Bears should feel very comfortable with their backup options. After Jenkins went down on Sunday, he was replaced by Bill Murray at left guard. Murray finished the game with the second-highest offensive PFF grade (behind Jenkins) on his 37 offensive snaps and did not allow a single pressure.
"[Murray] did a really nice job stepping in there, from what I saw," Eberflus said. "I got to look at the tape, but it looked like he was physical. He was sound in there."
Looking back at the film, Murray was more than that. There were multiple standout plays from Murray on Sunday that showed off his power and effort, including this play where he continued looking for work even after putting the first man on the ground.
Murray finished the game with the second-highest pass blocking grade on the team, with right guard Matt Pryor having the only higher grade. If Jenkins can't suit up on Sunday, the team should be fine with Murray and Pryor in the middle of the front while having Nate Davis as the first available guy off the bench if anything were to happen to either of those two players.
A simple personnel decision is helping the Bears’ offense dominate in a key situation the unit previously struggled in
This has been a successful adjustment.
