Akiem Hicks Practices for First Time Since London Trip

Bears defensive end looking to come off IR while Adam Shaheen has gone on it.

USA Today

For Akiem Hicks, the immediate future could include football this season.

For tight end Adam Shaheen, there might not even be a future season with the Chicago Bears, immediate or distant.

Hicks returned to practice Sunday for the first time since suffering a dislocated left elbow Oct. 6 and will continue working toward availability in a game Dec. 15 as he tries to come off of injured reserve.

The Bears held a lighter practice on Sunday and so it was difficult for Nagy to make much of a judgment on the condition of his defensive end, and Hicks was not made available to media after practice.

"I hate to put any predictions out there, but I feel good where he's at, that it's a good place," Nagy said of Hicks. " But again, we'll see as we go. It's literally going to be another one of those day-by-days for him, for the Packers."

Nagy did make it clear Hicks' availability will have nothing to do with whether they've been eliminated from the playoff chase. It's possible for the Bears to be eliminated before they play Green Bay.

"If Akiem is ready to play and ready to go for the Green Bay Packers game, then regardless of anything we want him to be able to play," Nagy said.

Shaheen went on injured reserve Saturday, ending his third season. With just 26 catches for a three-year career after being a second-round draft pick, it's possible the Bears would move on and look to acquire a different tight end.

That's a long ways off, however.

"I don't know. We'll see," Nagy said when asked about Shaheen's future. "I think Adam is as frustrated as anybody in just the injuries and the durability. It's something that we wanted to make sure we took care of as much as we could at the start and got him to the beginning of the season. And we did that.

"But there's been these issues that he's had. He's frustrated. He's not happy about it. We're not either. We've got to see how it goes here with trying to get healthy."

Nagy said the foot injury Shaheen has isn't related to the injury he had in the past to a foot.

"It was one of those deals that just kind of creeped up that he started feeling really during and after the week that he was inactive—just something over time that's been wearing on him," Nagy said. "We were trying to take more of a day-by-day mentality and it wasn't really progressing. So we just decided that (IR) was the route we wanted to go."

The offense needs both tight ends functioning well to operate and the Bears have had neither. Trey Burton went on IR with a calf injury and only 14 catches for 84 yards.

Burton's contract is four years so he's unlikely to be going anyway. Shaheen would be in the final year of his rookie contract and the team would take about a $630,000 cap hit by cutting him so it's not bank-breaking situation.

There's no doubt lacking both for any amount of effective play hurt.

"I would say the tight end position within our offense is important, and those guys, Trey and Adam, both want to be big parts of it," Nagy said. "It just didn’t happen this year.”

Shaheen went on IR with defensive back Sherrick McManis (groin). They were the sixth and seventh Bears on IR this year.  Shaheen also was on IR nine games last season before coming off of it. As a rookie in 2017, he didn't go on IR but missed the final three games due to injury.

Last year the Bears finished with six on IR but only one of those, defensive back Bryce Callahan, was a contributor during the regular season.

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