Hopefully it isn't serious but he was escorted off the field during team stretching exercises. Nate Davis bit the dust today too. I have no idea how serious his situation is. But both of our starting guards had to leave practice with injuries today.
LINK Injury-Prone Bear Gets Hurt Again in Sunday's Practice Veteran offensive lineman Teven Jenkins left practice early after the team's stretching period.
No wonder the team told him they have no interest in talking contract extension right now.
Good for the Bears not signing him. He is a very good player when healthy, but he is made of glass. Time to move on next year and focus on the OL and DL in the draft and FA. Assuming the starting tackles are decent (not proven yet, but hopefully Brax & Wright are) then the interior OL, both guards and center, need to be fixed. Bates and Shelton are battling it out for the starter's role this season, but neither of those guys are very good. It's like the battle of the tallest midget contest. Bates was a backup who played 35 snaps last season. He is an undrafted guy who has not done much of anything in 5 seasons in the NFL. Shelton graded out in the 40's as a pass blocker last year. He is not good. Bates and Shelton are (hopefully) very short term band aids for one season only. Jenkins and Nate Davis need to be gone too. We can't count on them.
No wonder the team told him they have no interest in talking contract extension right now.
Good for the Bears not signing him. He is a very good player when healthy, but he is made of glass. Time to move on next year and focus on the OL and DL in the draft and FA. Assuming the starting tackles are decent (not proven yet, but hopefully Brax & Wright are) then the interior OL, both guards and center, need to be fixed. Bates and Shelton are battling it out for the starter's role this season, but neither of those guys are very good. It's like the battle of the tallest midget contest. Bates was a backup who played 35 snaps last season. He is an undrafted guy who has not done much of anything in 5 seasons in the NFL. Shelton graded out in the 40's as a pass blocker last year. He is not good. Bates and Shelton are (hopefully) very short term band aids for one season only. Jenkins and Nate Davis need to be gone too. We can't count on them.
They told him no contract talks until the bye at earliest. For me, TJ needs to play 8 straight games and remain healthy for me to consider an in-season extension. Otherwise, we don't talk until next February. And if Jenkins can't play at least 14 strong games this season, I think you let him walk.
We are gonna have 3 picks in the top-60 next draft and it looking like 2 of those 3 might need to be OLs.
My hope is that he is just being super-careful and it was just a minor soft tissue thing he wanted to make certain didn't become a more serious thing. He isn't a loafer, and probably is a bit over-the-top in the other direction, pushing his body a bit too hard. He is a violent dude blocking... just an animal. His body must takek a big toll. Teven's situation seems different than Nate Davis. At least to me. Tevin is giving all out effort... but his body just isn't holding up to the pounding. While I'm not sure what's going on with Nate Davis... he looks pretty bad even when healthy. While Teven Jenkins is at a near-elite level when healthy. But unfortunately neither of these guys answer the bell in regular season play.