Prince Amukamara and others ruled out for Sunday
The Chicago Bears will be dealing with a couple of key injuries vs Tampa Bay.
The Chicago Bears have been a healthy football team for the first three games of the season. No team ever has every key player healthy, but at this point of the season, the Bears have only been missing tight end Adam Shaheen and special teams ace DeAndre Houston-Carson.
The injury list is starting to grow a little bit as expected. While the Bears are still relatively healthy, they will be without a couple of key players against the Tamp Bay Buccaneers in week four.
First, there is some good news. DHC has been a full participant in practice this week and is expected to play. He will give the special teams unit a boost and also help provide some depth at safety, a position the Bears have been rolling with just one backup (Deon Bush) through the first three weeks of the season.
The bad news is that Marcus Cooper remains out. While Cooper isn’t exactly a star cornerback, the reason that news is bad is because news that’s even worse is that Prince Amukamara will also not play vs Tampa.
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That’s going to leave the Bears thin at cornerback and Kevin Toliver, who did make a couple of decent plays against Arizona, but was also exposed a few times as well, will be starting. Toliver was a UDFA just a few months ago and now he will be starting and tasked to stop elite receivers such as Mike Evans and DeSean Jackson.
On the offensive side of the ball, rookie Anthony Miller is dealing with a shoulder dislocation and he will not play. As of now, Miller won’t need surgery so he should be back sometime in the near future (hopefully after the bye) but he won’t be on the field on Sunday. Expect Javon Wims to be activated and you’ll see plenty of Josh Bellamy in the slot.
Hopefully Nagy also gives Wims some snaps on offense so Bears’ fans can get a look at him in some football that counts. Wims shined in the preseason, but hasn’t faced off against 1s, he only played against 2s and 3s in August.
Kevin White presumably will also see some more snaps this game. White’s snaps have been extremely limited the first three games, and has basically been relegated to being a blocking receiver on screens and sweeps.
Next. Chicago Bears: Biggest key in beating the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. dark
The Bears are still healthy for the most part, but with Shaheen, Miller and Amukamara all out, that’s three key players that won’t play vs Tampa and the rest of the players on the field are going to have to step up in their absence.