Bears suffer significant injury at training camp at pivotal position

The Chicago Bears have been dealing with banged-up players throughout training camp, but had a bad sighting at their practice.

ESPN Bears beat reporter Courtney Cronin reported at Thursday's practice that long snapper Scott Daly was carted off the field and into the locker room. There is no word on the injury or how serious it is.

Daly joined the Bears last year to become their full-time long snapper with positive results. He has also played for the Dallas Cowboys and Detroit Lions since 2018. Daly was also a long snapper in spring football with the Alliance of American Football's San Antonio Commanders and the XFL's New York Guardians.

How much of an impact is Daly's injury to the Bears?

While we can't speculate on the significance of the injury, it's never a good sign to get carted off. The Bears hope they are just being cautious with Daly and that he can come back soon.

Long snapper is a thankless job until it becomes the most important one when the game is on the line for a game-winning field goal. It's critical to have a solid long snapper who won't throw the ball into the dirt or chuck it over the holder.

If the injury to Daly is as bad as it might be, then there is a new problem for head coach Ben Johnson to solve. They will have to immediately bring in some reinforcements in free agency to find a new long snapper who can play and be in shape as soon as possible.

Chicago's special teams will be of interest over the next day or two on how they handle the long snapper position, whether they ask one of their offensive linemen to do it or someone else. It's a temporary problem at camp that can be solve quickly.

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The issue is whether they can find someone who can play at the same high level Bears fans have seen from Daly over the last year.