The Chicago Bears had a relatively clean injury report, which should be expected for week one of the NFL season. However, one name that was on the injury report that has to be looked into is Velus Jones.
Velus Jones was listed as a did not participate in practice as he is dealing with a hamstring injury. This is worth noting because Jones has been missing time in training camp, but without an injury report, we were only left to speculate. Now, we know that he has a hamstring injury, and given the nature of hamstrings, that may have been holding him out for a few weeks.
Will Chicago Bears make Velus Jones inactive?
If you recall back in training camp Jones missed the preseason opener, and finale, just playing In the middle game. He looked electric in the middle game, but it appears as though he tweaked his hamstring because he has not practiced since.
When you put everything together, even though he has a few days to get out on the practice field, the odds of Jones being inactive are starting to get likely.
To start, this is a rookie who is missing practice time but also has missed plenty of training camp. At this point, he is behind the ball. Even in the preseason, they eased him in on offense, and he mostly was just a return man.
Jones has not practiced nearly enough to be trusted with the starting offense, and if his hamstring is acting up, the last thing that they want is for him to burst and push off of it as a return man.
Hamstrings are sensitive and if he comes back to fast, he could aggravate it and make it worse. Even if Jones returned to practice tomorrow, one day of full practice after two weeks of rest may still have his hamstring too tender to play.
In most cases, you would want to see a full week of practice to loosen the hamstring for the game when it will be tested. If this was a veteran, and he knew the ups and downs of the season it is possible to trust him after two days of practice.
However, Velus Jones is a rookie who is still learning the intricacies of the NFL. He is still behind on offense and is not practicing nearly enough to where he would be trusted on gameday.
The only spot Chicago would be missing him is in the return game. However, with the addition of Ihmir Smith-Marsette, they essentially have a starter in that role. The team should be cautious with Velus Jones, and given he is already behind, and still not healthy, it would make sense if they made him inactive for week one.