Bear Digest

Only Kevin Byard Remains Out Among Bears Starters

Tracking the Bears at Camp: With Jaquan Brisker returning to the lineup, the Bears starters are intact except for Kevin Byard and ccoach Matt Eberflus updated his injury.

Gene Chamberlain

Kevin Byard's health status was updated by Matt Eberflus Tuesday, as he's the only known starter currently sidelined.
Kevin Byard's health status was updated by Matt Eberflus Tuesday, as he's the only known starter currently sidelined. / Gregory Fisher-USA TODAY Sports
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The last day for fans to be at Halas Hall came and went Tuesday and the end of training camp itself is near.

So health matters on the roster.

The Bears have been practicing without at least one of their starting safeties for about two weeks and now there is a little more clarity and better health.

Safety Kevin Byard missed last week's game after he'd practiced during the week, and he has missed both practices since the game.

"It's good," coach Matt Eberflus said. "He's just working through some soft tissue stuff, but we feel really confident where he is."

As for the other starting safety spot, Jaquan Brisker had returned on Monday to a limited amount of practice snaps but on Tuesday he did the bulk of the work. Jonathan Owens and Elijah Hicks were in position together for some of them, but on most plays it was Hicks and Brisker.

Eberflus said most of his starters won't play against the Chiefs. While Brisker is back practicing, it seems risky to have the starting safety in a meaningless preseason game after he just returned, and they already know he can play his role in the defense based on two previous seasons.

A few other injury notes from practice included guard Ryan Bates being out. He is still week to week with an unspecified injury.

Backup cornerback Jaylon Jones missed a second straight practice.

Tackle Kiran Amegadjie went through his second practice with the team after coming off the non-football injury list.

"Obviously I've been playing football for a long time so it’s tough whenever the game is taken away from you," Amegadjie said. "Really excited to be back, really excited to get to work."

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He missed every Yale game last fall after his October quad injury, then all the offseason work and all of training camp until Monday. He's looking forward to some playing time against the Chiefs.

He feels up to joining the offensive line job competition because he's been taking "mental reps," following along each play and knowing what his assignment would be on those.

"Yeah I think the mental reps helped me tremendously because when I get out there I’ll be a step ahead in terms of where I’m supposed to go and it will allow me to play a lot faster," said Amegadjie, third-round pick and a Hinsdale Central grad. "And at the end of the day football just kind of comes naturally. So after that it’s just instincts and play."

Amegadjie admits he wanted back on the field enough to push it and say he was ready before he was.

"I mean, if you asked me that I would tell you since surgery because that's kind of who I am," he said. "I've always just wanted to be back on the field and I remember when I got here I told them 'I'm ready, I'm fine.' But I wasn't, clearly, so I think I wanted to play as soon as possible."

None of the others in the injury rehab area returned, including edge rusher Jake Martin, wide receiver Collin Johnson, defensive tackle Michael Dwumfour, defensive back Leon Jones and guard Theo Benedet.

It's Practice, Man

For some reason there has been questions raised on social media about Keenan Allen's conditioning or health based, apparently on a lack of catches in preseason games. It couldn't be based on practice because he's been productive all along there. But Allen stepped it way up for the second straight day, starting  with a perfect slant route out of the gates as he beat Jaylon Johnson in 7-on-7. On another, Allen went down to the turf to dig up a pass over the middle between two defenders.

"He's still Keenan Allen," cornerback Tyrique Stevenson said. "He's still going to show you who he is really."

One of the prettier plays of practice came in that same 7-on-7 with Tyson Bagent continuing his hot passing from last week's game, as he hit Velus Jones, who had split out wide and not in the backfield. ... Tyrique Stevenson might have had the defensive play of the practice when he showed up out of nowhere to deflect what looked like a sure TD throw by Williams to Gerald Everett.

Lining Up

Wide receiver DeAndre Carter took snaps with the first team in full squad as the Bears need to get a good look at him. The roster spots at receiver seem scarce and they need to see he can do more than returns. ... Nate Davis has been taking the majority of snaps with the first team at right guard, but they did shuttle in Matt Pryor for several plays during full squad work as the fire of competition was stoked.

Symbolic Gesture

In the first episode of Hard Knocks, Benedet gained notoriety for singing in his eagle bikini briefs in front of the entire team. Also in that performance was Amegadjie with a perfectly timed use of the symbols as Benedet sang "God Bless the USA."

They actually rehearsed it before Benedet performed.

"So the night before I just went to his hotel room and we ran through once or twice just to make sure I had the timing," Amegadjie said. "Because they (the symbols) were actually pretty small. So if you hit them too hard it kind of dims out or whatever, blocks out the sound. So I had to get, like, the perfect contact.

"So the first one I got that good contact and it was a good sound. So the second one, because everybody was laughing, I tried to go a lot harder to make it louder and it didn’t matter because everybody was laughing so you wouldn't have heard it anyways. But yeah, we ran through it."

Amegadjie admitted he had knowledge of Benedet's intention to shed his pants, as well.

Play Caller

The first team play caller on defense is returning. Eberflus admitted he had defensive coordinator Eric Washington calling plays during preseason except for the first two series against Buffalo.

"It’s good though to be able to work through that exercise," Eberflus said. "I'll come some periods in practice just to stay sharp and I wanted to do it at Buffalo because I wanted to make sure that the communication was right and the process was there.

"But again, he’s called most of it during preseason but I'll be calling it during the season."

Eberflus didn't want to give away who called the slot blitz against the Bengals by Kyler Gordon.

“Kyler did,” Eberflus blurted out, to media laughter.

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.