The Chicago Bears ’53-player roster and 16-player training roster are ready, for now. GM Ryan Pace and his staff made the difficult cutting decisions of the last few days and came to the first iteration (which has already undergone some changes) of the 2021 Bears.
One of the notable moves on the roster was the placement of rookie offensive lineman Teven Jenkins on the injured reserve. He will be able to return after three weeks, although he is likely to be out for a long time.
Placing Jenkins on the injured reserve is no surprise given the back injury that forced him out of all training camp practices and required surgery to repair him. Still, it magnifies the concerns surrounding Chicago’s offensive line.
The Bears will start the year with Jason Peters, 39, on the left and Germain Ifedi on the right. It could be worse, but it could certainly be better as well.
What about Jenkins’ long-term forecast? Pace is confident that the worst is behind his second-round selection.
“Without going into details, he started to suffer a bit of leg pain, I think just by force,” Pace said from Halas Hall on Wednesday. “The best there is? As soon as we did [the surgery], these symptoms disappeared. So we feel good about it. … And the good thing is, guys, just having surgery on your back doesn’t mean you don’t have a good career in the NFL. We are excited about the player, excited about where he is going. We now believe that we have solved the problem. “
Bears fans have every right to be cautiously optimistic about Jenkins. Not long ago Chicago tried to sell the leg injury to Kevin White as cane splints. It later turned out to be a season-ending fracture.
Jenkins ’worries are nothing new. His last season at Oklahoma State was interrupted due to his back, although it was a different injury. The Bears knew it and remained unbeaten on draft day, so much so that Pace was replaced by his prized left attack.
“We knew everything about the back exit … everyone knew it,” Pace said. “When he showed up at the training camp he was experiencing different symptoms than he had ever had in college, so we worked on that. We tried to go through all the natural processes … in the end, he needed surgery. It was a regular surgery ”.
It’s a leap of faith to call any back surgery common for a 300-pound offensive attack, but at this point the faith is what all Bears fans can put up with when it comes to Jenkins ’future.