No Season-Ending Injury for N'Keal Harry

An NFL Network report says the injury to N'Keal Harry suffered in Saturday's practice was a high ankle sprain, further depleting the Bears receiver corps.

USA Today

The Bears have caught a break of sorts with the injury to wide receiver N'Keal Harry, although it's certain to make roster cuts a real adventure at the position.

Harry went out of Saturday's practice with what looked like a bad injury to his left leg. He was helped by two people a short distance to get inside Halas Hall, limping badly all the way. But according to a report by NFL Network's Ian Rapoport, the injury is merely a high ankle sprain.

A high ankle sprain could be enough to keep him out as long as eight weeks or he could be back earlier, possibly by the opener Sept. 11 with San Francisco.

The problem with this is the Bears are without wide receiver Byron Pringle due to a quad injury for an extended period. They're also without wide receivers Velus Jones Jr. and Dante Pettis due to unspecified minor injuries.

So they not only need to worry about whether they'll be able to have some of their top pass catchers in synch with quarterback Justin Fields in the passing game by the opener, but they may need to go find more receivers just to continue practicing.

The list of currently unsigned wide receiver free agents includes often-injured Will Fuller, former Colts receiver T.Y. Hilton, former Bills veteran Emmanuel Sanders and Odell Beckham Jr.

Beckham is coming back from ACL surgery and Spotrac.com estimates his market value at $13.1 million a year. Hilton has a $6.2 million average annual cost estimate from Spotrac.

If healthy, Fuller would be a wise investment for many teams. However, he has never played more than 13 games in a season due largely to injuries of various sorts.

He has averaged 36 catches a season in six years with only four last year when he went out with a hand injury.

Other players continuing to miss practice time with injuries that have been unspecified and as such are what coach Matt Eberflus calls day to day or minor are: linebacker Noah Dawkins, cornerback Tavon Young, cornerback Kyler Gordon, tight end James O'Shaughnessy, defensive tackle Angelo Blackson, defensive end Al-Quadin Muhammad and tackle Julién Davenport.

Twitter: BearDigest@BearsOnMaven