Bear Digest

Bears Getting Ready to Battle Jayden Daniels Despite Word Games

The Commanders label their rookie QB "week to week" with a rib injury, which in Chicago means less chance he plays this week but the Bears say they are ready either way.

Gene Chamberlain

The Bears defense has been dominant but facing Jayden Daniels would be an entirely different level of task.
The Bears defense has been dominant but facing Jayden Daniels would be an entirely different level of task. / David Banks-Imagn Images
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Someone needs to get Washington Commanders coach Dan Quinn together with Bears coach Matt Eberflus and iron out the meaning of their injury labels.

In Matt Eberflus' world, injured players who are considered "week to week," are those who will be out for a while. Players who are "day to day" could play that week. Week to week is someone like Zacch Pickens, who hasn't played since Week 2.

However, Washington's coach on Monday labeled quarterback Jayden Daniels as "week to week" with a rib injury and left open the possibility he'll face the Bears on Sunday.

"The status for Jayden, we'll put down as week to week," Quinn told Washington reporters. "As you guys know, it's a rib injury and we'll take him through all the steps at practice.

"We're hopeful he can play."

Quinn added: "So it's not going to be something that knocks him out for a long term."

The Bears defense expects to be ready for Daniels, who is a run-pass threat.

"I think this kid provides a lot of challenges," linebacker T.J. Edwards said. "You saw what he did even just last week with his legs and things like that. I think their offensive scheme is firing on all cylinders right now. They've got really good skill. Good O-line. Two really good backs, three good backs, really. He's doing a good job of facilitating all of that. So I think it's going to be a good challenge for us."

Daniels has a 107 passer rating with a league-best 75.6% completions and 1,410 yards on 127 of 168 with six touchdowns and two interceptions. None of the quarterbacks the Bears have faced currently own a passer rating higher than 94.9 (C.J. Stroud). Combined, the six have a passer rating of 78.5 with 59.7% completions and 37 TDs to 30 interceptions. Of course, some of their problems have been the result of one game against the Bears' pass defense. The Bears defense leads the NFL in passer rating against at 72.8.

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Maintaining discipline will be the key if week to week becomes day to day becomes Daniels is starting.

"Kind of a rules game with all the things they provide up front and all the gap schemes they give you, but also have the element of him keeping the ball and doing some good things in space," Edwards said. "So it'll be good."

Eberflus lauded Daniels' skill level. He was a quarterback the Bears considered prior to drafting Caleb Williams.

"No question, he is a talent, a big talent as you can see that in the first part of the games," Eberflus said. "Hes got a real good future ahead of him.

"You can certainly see how he reads the field, how he sees, his vision, his anticipation, his accuracy, his ability to escape when he needs to, his ability to do the QB runs if they ask him to do that, athleticism. He's a big talent."

He's also running an offense under offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury labeled as "college style" by some, but still more complex.

"There's, I think, more reading for him in the run game than he had in college, it looked like to me, but again, they just really do a good job of enhancing and looking at his skillset, which is throwing the ball down the field," Eberflus said. "He does that really well. He's been able to get some really good chunk plays, their whole offense has during the course of these first games."

Twitter: BearsOnSI

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Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

BearDigest.com publisher Gene Chamberlain has covered the Chicago Bears full time as a beat writer since 1994 and prior to this on a part-time basis for 10 years. He covered the Bears as a beat writer for Suburban Chicago Newspapers, the Daily Southtown, Copley News Service and has been a contributor for the Daily Herald, the Associated Press, Bear Report, CBS Sports.com and The Sporting News. He also has worked a prep sports writer for Tribune Newspapers and Sun-Times newspapers.