The Chicago Bears' loss to the Minnesota Vikings was devastating. It was a chance to at least show growth this season, but all it showed is that this season may actually be worse than the year before. The Bears are sinking quickly, and to add insult to injury, they are going to lose some guys for even longer and will be more shorthanded in the coming weeks.
3. Chicago Bears are doubtful to have Justin Fields this week
Justin Fields dislocated his thumb. Head coach Matt Eberflus said that he will not put a timetable on his return because it will come down to when he has enough grip strength and that will come down to Fields. However, he did say that Fields is doubtful for this week.
With him being deemed doubtful on a Monday, Eberflus is essentially just leaving the door open for a miracle. We should not expect to see Fields. His status for week eight and beyond is in jeopardy because the Bears may keep losing and sinking in the standings. This makes it hard to say that they should rush anyone back. That means this will be a Tyson Bagent week. He will be making his first start with the Chicago Bears.
You can say what you want about his first appearance in the NFL, but it is a lot harder to come in off of the bench and make plays when you have not taken any snaps of practice and have been preparing Justin Fields all week.
Now, the team will spend a full week practicing and playing to the strengths of Bagent. he may perform better in week seven than he did in week six.
2. The Chicago Bears will miss Nate Davis for extended time
The 2023 season has been a disaster for Nate Davis. It is hard to entirely blame him because he had a family issue that took away a lot of his preseason. He did not practice much with his new team, and he looked lost in week one. Then, he sat out weeks two and three. He returned in week four, and in week five, we got a glimpse of why the team signed him.
Davis and Teven Jenkins played together for the first for 37 snaps and it was the best that the offensive line had looked all season. They beat the Washington Commanders. Of course, just 10 snaps into their week six performance Nate Davis suffered an ankle injury.
The sound is that Davis will miss three of four more weeks, so we will not see him until week 11. Can Teven Jenkins stay healthy until that point? Is the 47 snaps in these two games the only time we will see that duo at guard? The thought was that these two would lead a power running attack and it would help Justin Fields as a passer. It never transpired, and now it probably never will.
1. The Chicago Bears will not get to see Terell Smith develop for a while
The Chicago Bears made Terell Smith in active this past week with an illness, and now we know why. He has mono. This is a 3-4 week issue as well as he will be losing a lot of weight and will have to work himself back to playing health.
Smith was having a nice start to his rookie season, but the timing is not the worst. The Chicago Bears just got Jaylon Johnson back and he started in place of Smith, as he would have if Smith was healthy. Still, the Chicago Bears have been exploring dime looks, and on Sunday they got Jaylon Jones onto the field for seven coverage snaps. That could have been the role that Smith plays. Beyond that, if anything does happen to Johnson or Tyrique Stevenson he is no longer the next off of the bench.
There were some discussions that the Chicago Bears should trade Jaylon Johnson to play Smith more and see what he can bring. With the illness to Smith that no longer is possible. The Bears still may trade Johnson, but it seems less likely. If they did they would be asking Jaylon Jones to step into his role, and there is not much that they should want to see from Jones as he is a UDFA who has not shown much this year.
Overall, none of the news is very good and brings a lot of questions about the next few weeks.