Chicago Bears: New coaching staff, new injury luck?
The Chicago Bears have not been had much luck when it comes to their injury luck. Do the reports from mini-camp show a sign of good things to come?
Any Chicago Bears fans know that the Ryan Pace era has been stunted with a ridiculous string of injuries over recent years. Whoever is to blame, big name after the big name has hit the injury report for a significant amount of time over the past three seasons.
One unusual thing to note out of the teams most recent OTA’s was how positive the vibe was around every big name players injury status.
Allen Robinson
Allen Robinson got a practice session in at each OTA practice over the past two weeks. That is extremely significant considering how late into summer his ACL tear occurred. The Chicago Bears remained optimistic about Robinson and should have been a strong sentiment that the team signed Robinson but let Cameron Meredith walk with long-term health questions.
Kyle Long
Long is currently recovering from a neck injury. Of the big name Bears, he has been the least active. However, he has been chomping at the bit to get out there and has been active with the practice sessions.
Nagy is confident in the recovery of Long, and while they held him out for OTA’s they do see him suiting up for full sessions in training camp.
Leonard Floyd
Floyd went down deep into the season, having some question whether or not he would be 100 percent by the start of the season. Now, Matt Nagy is saying that Floyd will be 100 percent by the start of training camp.
Floyd joined Allen Robinson in getting onto the field for the second week of OTA practice. Floyd said that he went full speed and that everything feels great. That is a huge relief considering the magnitude, timing and value of the player injured.
Kevin White
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Lastly, we have the forgotten man Kevin White. Whether White has wanted to or not, he has been in forefront of some offseason media discussion in Chicago. He has shown up motivated, understanding his job is on the line and has been one of the stands out players from the OTA sessions so far.
Yes, the offseason is a time for players to get healthy and not injured. However, this team is getting healthy at a rate ahead of schedule essentially across the board. You expect to hear optimism at this time, but never this much optimism about every single injury situation.
The team did change their strength and conditioning coach. They may be evaluating injuries differently with the Robinson vs. Meredith debate. Either way, momentum seems to officially be on the side of the Chicago Bears as they head to Bourbonnais.
We will see if they are able to ride this momentum from camp and into the season. For as much as Nagy can change schematically if he has a much healthier team that is almost all that he really needs.