Bernstein: Beat-Up Bears Already Off Schedule
By Dan Bernstein--
CBSChicago.com senior columnist
(CBS) Phil Jackson was fond of laughing off big deficits early in games by noting that the good part about trailing right away was that it left more time to catch up.
Some version of that silver-lining playbook has to apply to the Bears and their myriad injuries, a sense that at least when half the team is hurt by the end of the first week of August, that means more opportunity to recover.
Or something. However you spin it, this is an issue.
Second-year center Hroniss Grasu is just the latest and the worst news, a starter likely out for the year with what's believed to be a torn ACL suffered at Saturday's Family Fest practice. This undoes much of what went into rebuilding the offensive line in the offseason and has the pro personnel department already looking around the league for warm bodies, after letting versatile veteran Matt Slauson go and seeing Manny Ramirez choose to retire. Ted Larsen is the center for now, but his primary skill appears to be starting stupid brawls in which more of his teammates could conceivably hurt themselves.
Jay Cutler can't be happy about any of it, especially with almost all of his top receivers out. We've seen the Marc Mariani show once before, and nobody wants to see it again. But as usual, Alshon Jeffery and Eddie Royal and Zach Miller are missing, because they almost always are. Kevin White hasn't played any actual tackle football in well over a year and is still being described as a project even after more than enough time to learn his routes.
Good luck to new coordinator Dowell Loggains, with his offense now behind the chains, the equivalent of a second-and-20 in their own territory. He has a shuffling line, no tight ends, just a couple receivers left and a practice game Thursday night.
Coach John Fox talks often about practice time and quality, dismissing the value of mini-camps and OTAs in favor of what he can get done with truer simulations and his players in pads. These become lost days that key performers will never get back, now, and he knows it.
And what's going on with Pernell McPhee, general manager Ryan Pace's first free-agent prize who played much of last season on one good leg? He had what was said to be routine knee surgery in February, and a Chicago Tribune report then said specifically, "There shouldn't be any restrictions by the time training camp rolls around."
But it has rolled around and through, and McPhee remains on the physically-unable-to-perform list. This could be the football version of Joakim Noah we're looking at, a player emerging from a postseason clean-up procedure as something permanently less than he once was. Better hope not.
Whatever the expectations in Year 2 of the Fox/Pace regime, it's increasingly difficult to maximize practice time with so many starting players just not participating. We'll hear all about depth and opportunity and "next man up," and we're not even at the first exhibition yet.
There's still time for some people to heal, and that's all that's positive about it right now.
Dan Bernstein is a co-host of 670 The Score's "Boers and Bernstein Show" in afternoon drive. You can follow him on Twitter @dan_bernstein and read more of his columns here.
