So, Coby Bryant, the Chicago Bears’ starting free safety, is sidelined for 8-10 weeks due to a knee injury sustained during training camp on August 3.
The injury involves a hyperextended knee, bone bruise, and small fracture, with no surgery expected. So roughly out til Oct. Gotta wonder if they’ll move the rook Dillon Thieneman over to FS. I don’t really like repositioning rooks. 1st yr hard enough. More deets…
Via Cbear via ESPN via con Dios…
Reporter was in camp the day it rained.
Best thing I saw/heard: I attended a sodden day of practice in Chicago, and the individual period was inside as the Bears let the rain abate. Only after enough weather had cleared the area did 7-on-7 and 11-on-11 move outside, where a drenched field made for difficult cuts and slip-n-slide falls. There were procedural penalties and drops. It didn’t seem like a day for big conclusions.
Only one player seemed totally immune: Coby Bryant, the Bears’ big free agent add at safety. He was everywhere Saturday. His interception on Caleb Williams‘ deep throw to Maurice Alexander was a thing of beauty. As Williams read the Bears’ split-field coverage and loaded to throw the seam route to Alexander, Bryant whipped out of his angle and drove to the middle of the field, tracking the ball better than Alexander and catching it at extension. He had two more pass breakups on the day, including a driving deflection on a crossing pattern from Rome Odunze.
Unfortunately, Bryant was carted off the field during Monday’s practice. ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported that no surgery is expected for a knee hyperextension, bone bruise and small fracture, but he will be out for 8-10 weeks. That would set Bryant behind the eight ball in learning coordinator Dennis Allen’s defense and developing chemistry with a fellow newcomer at safety, first-round pick Dillon Thieneman.
Veteran free agent Cam Lewis, who spent time at first-team slot corner and second-team safety during my time at camp, stepped in for Bryant at first-team safety Monday. He has good versatility but not nearly the processing speed or hitting power of Bryant. The Bears were already lighter at linebacker, having released Tremaine Edmunds to sign Devin Bush. They’re also thin in the defensive front, where they need a key pass rusher to emerge. Now with the Bryant injury, the questions on a defense that was extremely reliant on turnovers last season are becoming difficult to ignore.
I saw a lot more Sam Roush with the first team than I expected. The rookie tight end out of Stanford was a draft darling of mine. At 6-foot-6 and 267 pounds, with a rugby background, Roush is capable of displacing defensive ends in one-on-one assignments. The Bears experimented with No. 3 tight end Durham Smythe as a fullback in 2025, and I’d wager we see Roush in that role — with increased frequency — in 2026. Smythe had 335 snaps throughout the regular season and playoffs. Roush might push 400.
If he’s biting into anyone’s snaps, it should be from Cole Kmet rather than Colston Loveland. Loveland is the sun of the Bears’ solar system of receivers, and he’s a great pair with Roush, who can line up inside Loveland as a blocker more readily than Kmet can. Roush and Kmet might split too many snaps for either to be fantasy viable … and the same issue could be present at No. 3 receiver.
I saw Alexander, Kalif Raymond and Jahdae Walker all get first-team reps. Third-round rookie Zavion Thomas was mostly with the second team, but given his ball-in-hand ability, it’s fair to expect him to take snaps early as a decoy player at the very least. The Bears were not particularly deep at wide receiver last season, as DJ Moore and Odunze dominated the snap counts; Olamide Zaccheaus and Luther Burden III rotated behind them. Walker was fifth on the team in receiver snaps with 86, but I’d be stunned if that happens again. After Burden and Odunze, the receiver to draft in fantasy is likely Raymond … but I wouldn’t be surprised if that role was much more rotational than it was in 2025.
Best of the rest:
On a day in which everyone’s cleats seemed stuck in the mud, Thomas still flew. He created some yards after the catch on a crossing pattern and scored on a quick-out breaker. He’s built like a track athlete and will get used like one this season. I’ll bet you a sandwich he scores a 50-yard touchdown on some reverse or screen or trick play before the season is out.
The wet field seemed to dramatically impact Burden and Caleb Williams — there was one segment of 11-on-11 in which Williams targeted Burden three times and got three incompletions for his trouble — one clear miss, one clear drop and one that was somewhere in the middle. The people I spoke to are still shining with enthusiasm for Burden, so I’ll chalk the bad day up to the weather.
I was surprised to learn that second-round rookie Logan Jones has not cracked the first-team rotation at all, with veteran Garrett Bradbury manning the center position uncontested. So it seems clear that the Bears want to start the season with Bradbury, giving him every rep necessary to get up to speed. “It is not easy to play center in our scheme,” offensive coordinator Press Taylor said. Then he repeats it in case I didn’t get it: “It is not easy to play center in our scheme.”
The Bears’ running game improved dramatically over the course of Johnson’s first year: 42.9% success rate in the first eight weeks, 50.8% in the final eight weeks. That was the best in the NFL. Taylor told me they garnered a lot of feedback midseason from the offensive line veterans (Drew Dalman, Joe Thuney) about how to make communication and identification easier. Kmet told me that Ben Johnson leads the running game install during the week, which he had never seen even an offensive coordinator do before, let alone a head coach. Williams might be on the cover of Madden, but you can hear the pride in every Bears member’s voice when talking about their running game. It’s the core of the offense.
In other news, Darnell Wright got PAID. This is the way it should be – target quality players, lock them up quickly without Jerry Jones’ drama – set and forget. Done.
Creates good mojo and sends positive message to the rest in that locker room grinding.
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