Bear Digest

Bears Move Tight End Gerald Everett to Non-Football Injury List

Former Chargers tight end Gerald Everett is unavailable for the start of training camp and the Bears have a few other injury concerns.

Gene Chamberlain

Gerald Everett tries to pull free of a tackle attempt by Patrick Surtain II in a Chargers game last season. Everett will not be available for the first Bears practices due to injury.
Gerald Everett tries to pull free of a tackle attempt by Patrick Surtain II in a Chargers game last season. Everett will not be available for the first Bears practices due to injury. / Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports
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The improvements the Bears made to support Caleb Williams will appear a little less impactful Saturday when practice starts.

Tight end Gerald Everett will not be available at the outset because of an injury. The Bears did their fitness test Friday afternoon and have put the former Chargers/Seahawks/Rams tight end on the non-football injury list.

At the same time, they moved undrafted rookie defensive lineman Jamree Kromah off of the physically unable to perform list.

Everett was expected to be the No. 2 tight end, the move-tight end in the two-tight end personnel grouping. The Bears have not revealed the nature of his injury.

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This leaves them with either 40-year-old Marcedes Lewis as backup tight end or either Tommy Sweeney, Stephen Carlson or undrafted rookie Brenden Bates. Sweeney and Carlson are veterans trying to make comebacks from past injuries.

Everett had 58 and 51 receptions the last two seasons and hasn't been below 33 catches in a season since his rookie year of 2017 with the Rams.

Kromah had finger surgery after minicamp apparently is well enough now to practice.

The other injury addressed by GM Ryan Poles in his training camp-opening press conference was the decision made Wednesday to put rookie third-round tackle Kiran Amegadjie on the non-football injury list after he spent the offseason rehabbing from surgery to repair a quad tear.

"He's progressing," Poles said. "Everything is positive but I don't have a specific timetable now."

Coach Matt Eberflus had been positive about chances of Amegadjie being ready for training camp back in June, but apparently the former Hinsdale Central player hasn't advanced enough since his injury occurred last October while playing for Yale.

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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.