DJ Moore Sort of Entirely Healthy

After suffering an ankle injury in Sunday's game, DJ Moore finished but had to rest more than normal and says he's ready to go this week.

The Bears continue to borrow from Marvel movies for inspiration to get through the season.

Earlier it was Kyler Gordon and his Spider-Man mask, and now it's DJ Moore with a Marvel reference.

Moore looked pretty banged up during Sunday's 27-16 win over Arizona and seemed to get through it with three catches for 18 yards and about 10 plays less than he normally could have expected with 52 snaps.

Now he says the ankle feels better.

"I think I'm like Wolverine," Moore said.

The X-Men character has remarkable healing powers. Those claws might come in handy in the receiving game but then again they might need to get a new ball after every completion.

Moore wasn't on the injury report this week even though he had the injury, left, came back, left again and came back.

"I guess you all were surprised right, because I wasn't on the injury report," he told reporters at Halas Hall Thursday.

The Bears might need some remarkable healing abilities by other receivers if they're going to put an experienced group of pass catchers on the field for Justin Fields. Darnell Mooney (concussion) and Cole Kmet (knee) remained out of practice Thursday after missing Wednesday. At least in Mooney's case, a return seems unlikely this week because it's rare when someone is in the protocol without practicing on Thursday and suddenly is available and clears protocol.

Moore came in for extra treatment from trainers over the holiday. He might not have been as injured as it seemed. At least, he disputes being a decoy throughout the second half.

"No, I'm never a decoy," he said. "Maybe sometimes on specific plays, but going out there, I just wanted to be out there with my teammates and brothers. I knew I could go so I didn't want to be sitting on the sidelines just not able to go."

As for Mooney, it would seem they're getting younger players like Tyler Scott ready to fill the role this week. Scott has 14 catches on 25 targets for 141 yards and has run seven times for 41 yards.

"He just made some big catches at crucial times this year," Mooney said. "Just to see him put a whole game together is going to be interesting."

Moore's presence can help in another way. He normally has played twice a season against Atlanta in the past while he was with Carolina.

"They look familiar," Moore said. "They're going to come up and press you, be aggressive and just be like little gnats the whole game because they're not going to back off.

"So it's going to be a challenge on the outside."

The Bears injury situation improved a tiny bit on Thursday as center Lucas Patrick was able to practice on a limited basis despite a knee injury. He sat out on Wednesday. The rest of the injury report was unchanged since Wednesday.

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