The Chicago Bears returned to Halas Hall following their bye week Monday to prepare for Sunday’s game against the Washington Commanders.
Here are five things we learned from coach Matt Eberflus, tight end Cole Kmet and linebacker T.J. Edwards.
1. Commanders rookie quarterback Jayden Daniels is “week to week” with an injury to his ribs.
Commanders coach Dan Quinn told reporters Monday afternoon the team is hopeful Daniels can play in Sunday’s game but will have to “take him through all of the steps at practice and assess how he’s doing and keep working through that.”
“We’ll also make sure to take every precautionary step and do it smartly for the player and the man,” Quinn said. “He’s such a unique player that I want to make sure he can be him fully in his own way — the movements, the throwing and all the stuff that would go with that. He’ll do everything he can, but I’ll trust my eyes.”
Daniels injured his ribs in the first quarter against the Carolina Panthers on Sunday, and backup quarterback Marcus Mariota played the rest of the game in the Commanders’ 40-7 win.
The Bears are well aware of the challenge ahead should they have to face a healthy Daniels, who has thrown for 1,410 yards and six touchdowns and rushed for 372 yards and four scores this season.
The Bears and Eberflus looked at Daniels during their draft evaluation process. Eberflus said they “no question” saw his potential and believe Daniels has shown he is a “big talent” in his seven games so far.
“He’s got a real good future ahead of him,” Eberflus said. “You can certainly see how he reads the field, how he sees, his vision, his anticipation, his accuracy, his ability to escape when he needs to, his ability to do the QB runs if they ask him to do that, athleticism.”
The Commanders offense as a whole represents a major test for a Bears defense that ranks in the top 10 in the league in many categories. After Sunday’s game, the Commanders lead the league with a 31.1 points per game average and are fourth with 381.4 yards per game.
“This kid provides a lot of challenges,” Edwards said of Daniels. “You saw what he did even just last week with his legs. Their offensive scheme is firing on all cylinders right now. They’ve got really good skill. Good O-line. … Three good backs, really. (Daniels is) doing a good job of facilitating all of that. So it’s going to be a good challenge for us.
“Kind of a rules game with all the things they provide up front and all the gap schemes they give you, but also have the element of him keeping the ball and doing some good things in space.”
2. Kmet said the Bears’ margins are going to get thinner as they get into the difficult part of their schedule.
The game against the Commanders opens the second third of the Bears season and looks like their toughest test to date — with more difficult matchups to come in November against the NFC North slate.
Kmet said the Bears offense still has a lot of work to do if they want to compete in those games.
“What has overcome our mistakes that we’ve seen the past couple weeks — that don’t make it so glaring — is the talent we do have,” Kmet said. “We’re able to make up for it at times when we have a mistake. We have the guys now on both offense and defense to make up for some of those mistakes, which is really cool to have.
“But you don’t want to live in that world consistently. When we go against the Lions, the Packers, the Vikings, they’ve all got equal talent to us. That’s where those margins come in. We’ve got to be on it. Those are the types of games we want to be playing in, and we will be playing in soon.”
3. Cornerback Tyrique Stevenson and long snapper Scott Daly were at the Bears walk-through on Monday.
The Bears needed the bye week for multiple players to heal injuries, and Eberflus said they were hopeful about several of them.
Stevenson missed the Jaguars game with a calf injury, and Daly was knocked out of the game with a knee injury. Eberflus said they were both working on the field Monday.
Eberflus said nickel Kyler Gordon is “working through” the hamstring injury that knocked him out of the Jaguars game, and the Bears will see where he’s at when practice resumes Wednesday. Safety Jaquan Brisker is still in concussion protocol and has a couple more steps to clear, but Eberflus said he is “looking good.”
Guard/center Ryan Bates remains on injured reserve with shoulder and elbow injuries, but Eberflus said they received a “good report” on his progress.
4. Eberflus addressed recent trade rumors involving the Bears.
In a story last week, NFL Network reporter Ian Rapoport listed right guard Nate Davis and running back Khalil Herbert as players who potentially could be in trade talks ahead of the Nov. 5 trade deadline.
Herbert, who rushed for 1,775 yards in his first three seasons with the Bears, has played just 27 snaps on offense this season behind D’Andre Swift and Roschon Johnson — but would be key depth if either got hurt. Eberflus was asked specifically about Davis, who was a healthy scratch against the Jaguars after offensive linemen Matt Pryor and Bill Murray leapfrogged him on the depth chart.
“Of course during this time when you’re leading up to the trade deadline, you’re always going to have guys that are in conversation for those trade talks,” Eberflus said. “I’m not going to talk about particular players or players that we’re looking at potentially, but that’s always going to be the case. It’s part of the business. As an NFL player, you know that. It’s just part of that time that we’re in right now.”
5. Kmet said there might be “some pretty pissed off long snappers throughout the league” after his award.
Kmet was named the NFC special teams player of the week last week for stepping in for Daly against the Jaguars. He was the first NFL long snapper to win the award, which he joked surely annoyed the regular NFL long snappers.
“But yeah I’ll take it,” he said. “Pretty cool and obviously a cool award to get regardless. Just kind of makes that day a little more memorable, I guess.”
With Daly back and backup Jake McQuaide on the practice squad, the Bears aren’t likely to need Kmet this week. But Kmet said he still did a film review Monday of his snaps.
“They looked all right, to be honest with you,” Kmet said. “I was looking at the op times. They were a little higher than they usually have been, but yeah we got the job done on most of them. I know the one field goal got blocked. I thought I did all right considering I’m not actually a long snapper.”
