The Chicago Bears are running a little low on healthy wide receivers after adding another to the injury report for Week 9’s game against the Cincinnati Bengals.
During Wednesday’s first practice, the Bears held out four of the six wide receivers on their 53-man roster with injuries, including starter Rome Odunze — whom they added to the report with a heel injury after he caught seven passes for 114 yards last Sunday.
The Bears also did not have starter DJ Moore (hip/groin), second-round rookie Luther Burden III (concussion) or veteran Olamide Zaccheaus (knee) available, leaving Devin Duvernay and rookie Jahdae Walker as the only healthy wideouts on the active roster.
Odunze’s addition to the injury report is concerning for the Bears, given their other injuries at the position, but the Bears have not yet commented on the severity of his new injury. Whether he plays against the Bengals on Sunday could largely depend on his pain tolerance and how he makes it through the remaining practices this week.
The Bears will have two more practices to figure out the state of their receiver room for Sunday’s matchup, with the final injury report due to come out on Friday afternoon.
Luther Burden III Remains in Concussion Protocol
The Bears are facing a potentially dire situation at wide receiver heading into Week 9, but the details behind the injuries — those that the Bears have shared — suggest there is hope they won’t have to be nearly as shorthanded on Sunday as it may seem currently.
Let’s start with Moore. He suffered his hip and groin injuries in Week 6’s win over the Washington Commanders and spent the night in the hospital after the game, but he has played in each of the Bears’ two games since then despite some limitations in practice, catching four passes for 74 yards and taking two carries on Sunday against the Ravens.
While a second day of non-participation for Moore would raise alarm bells, his injuries are unlikely to threaten his availability unless he experiences some type of setback.
The other two injury situations are a little more fluid for the Bears.
Burden sustained a concussion in the third quarter against the Ravens on Sunday and is now in the league’s five-step concussion protocol. He will have time to potentially clear the protocol before Sunday’s kickoff, but concussions are not always straightforward in terms of their recovery times (see: Jaquan Brisker in 2024) and could hold him back.
Meanwhile, Bears head coach Ben Johnson said Monday that Zaccheaus is “day-to-day” with the knee injury he suffered against the Ravens. Like the others, he could improve his case for playing on Sunday if the Bears upgrade his participation throughout the week, but the Bears could take their time easing him back if the others all check out.
Workouts Indicate Bears Are Not Panicking at WR
The Bears could have availability issues plaguing their receiving corps this week, but it does not seem as though they are overly concerned about their depth, given that none of the seven players they hosted for workouts on Tuesday play the wide receiver position.
In most cases, the Bears would have at least tried out more wide receivers if they were worried about not having some of their personnel available against the Bengals.
Then again, the Bears already have three wide receivers signed to their 16-man practice squad, each of them having spent training camp learning the offense with the team. If they wind up needing more depth for their game-day roster, the simplest path to getting some would be promoting one of Miles Boykin, Maurice Alexander or JP Richardson.
The Bears (4-3) will take on the Bengals (3-5) on the road at 1 p.m. ET on Sunday.
Like Heavy Sports’s content? Be sure to follow us.
This article was originally published on Heavy Sports
The post Bears Suffer Another Injury Blow at WR Ahead of Bengals Matchup appeared first on Heavy Sports.