Matt Eberflus gives latest updates on injuries, trade deadline |
CHICAGO - This season has been a year of injuries for every NFL team, especially at the quarterback position. Unfortunately, the Bears have also fallen victim to injuries. Instead of initially listing quarterback Justin Fields as doubtful as he has been the past few weeks, Eberflus immediately ruled him out for the upcoming game against the New Orleans Saints (Noon / CBS). He also confirmed rookie Tyson Bagent will start in Fields’ place in that game.
“Justin continues to work with the trainers. He’ll still be week-to-week,” Eberflus said. “But, he is improving and until he gets back healthy, Tyson will be our quarterback for now. So that’s where that is.” This season has been the season of anomalies and unexpected situations for the Chicago Bears. The situation with safety Jaquan Brisker is yet another one of those cases. In a quite odd situation, Brisker has returned to concussion protocol. He was put on the injury report with an illness and was not able to play in the 30-13 loss to the Los Angeles Chargers this past Sunday. Since he is now back in concussion protocol, he is questionable for the Saints matchup. “Sunday, Monday, he checked out fine with the evaluation and with (an) independent neurologist, being cleared from concussion protocol. He was all set. Then Tuesday, he reported that he was ill and had a fever and that persisted through Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and into Friday,” Eberflus said. “We ruled him out on Saturday and then, again, wasn’t feeling well and then his illness cleared Saturday and then Sunday he felt he was cleared in terms of his illness and then still felt a little bit off in terms of having different symptoms and those types of things. So, we got him reevaluated and now he’s back into concussion protocol.” Shifting gears back to offense, there are also some injury notes on the offensive line. While Eberflus did not provide an update on Nate Davis, he did say that he is hopeful Braxton Jones, who is currently on injured reserve, will be able to return to practice. Lucas Patrick also suffered a back spasm on Sunday, but was able to play against Los Angeles. This would still be something to continue to monitor to make sure nothing else comes up. “We’re going to see where he is. We’d like to get (Jones) out there this week and we’ll see where he is. We’ve got to reevaluate him day-to-day. But, we’re hopeful that we’ll get out there this week,” Eberflus said. “(Patrick) woke up with it and he got the treatment before the game and it was just a back spasm in there and they treated it. Again, our staff did a really good job getting him ready for the game and he played.” Another consideration for the Bears is the trade deadline. It is fast approaching with the deadline at 3 p.m. on Halloween this year. The Bears were active in the trade last year, but Eberflus declined to comment on whether that might occur this year. But, he did note that it would be hard on the locker room for them to lose one of their players. “It’s up to (general manager) Ryan (Poles) and his crew and certainly, they look at everything and we’ll see what happens,” Eberflus said. “Our locker room’s close and they’re like brothers and it’s a tight group. They have group relationships with each other there and they spend time with each other. So if you ever end up trading somebody, like last year we did, certainly this year because we’re real tight this year, I would just say it’s hurtful.” With the Bears still in rebuilding, it is anyone’s guess what they might do before the trade deadline, if anything at all.
