Nick Kwiatkoski Expected to go on Season-Ending IR
The Bears may lose another player to an injury, this time it’s Nick Kwiatkoski.
The Chicago Bears can’t catch a break. But their players seem to be breaking at an alarming rate. After losing Jerrell Freeman in week one for the season with a torn pectoral muscle, it appears that his replacement, second-year linebacker Nick Kwiatkoski, may also be out for the year with the same injury.
#Bears LB Nick Kwiatkoski, who left #Bucs game with a pec, is feared to have suffered a season-ending injury, source said. MRI to confirm.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) September 18, 2017
The Bears have yet to officially comment on Kwiatkoski other than to say he’s still being evaluated but it really is a kick in the teeth to the franchise that he goes down with an injury. The 2016 Chicago Bears’ biggest issue was injuries. Their second biggest issue was a lack of depth to absorb those injuries. The 2017 Bears are already getting hit with the IR-bug pretty hard and it’s only week two and now their depth is already being challenged.
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Sadly, after two weeks, it already seems that this season is a loss for the Bears. The Bears certainly don’t appear capable of winning games with Mike Glennon, and based on recent comments by John Fox, Glennon is going to start a minimum of two more games. So it’s not that the loss of Kwiatkoski ruins the season, the Bears were doing a good job of doing that on their own. What is unfortunate is that the Bears appear to have a young player who was on the cusp of becoming a legitimate NFL linebacker (he had four tackles on Tampa Bay’s first drive of the game), and now he’s going to lose an entire season of development.
One would think the Bears will plan on starting Christian Jones and elevate John Timu when Kwiatkoski officially gets placed on IR, but that is simply speculation at this point. Regardless, Kwiatkoski’s injury is an unfortunate one for Bears’ fans. This is going to be a long season, and he would have been one of the bright spots to watch.