Bears rookie Teven Jenkins is having back surgery Tuesday, coach Matt Nagy said, with hopes that the tackle can return to the team this season.
It’s a major blow to a team that traded up to draft Jenkins No. 39 overall with plans of him playing left tackle.
“This is something — we were aware of [his] back issues in college, but these are symptoms that are new,” he said. “So this is something we’re dealing with. He’s at a point right now where we were trying different things to see if we could stay away from this. …
“When you get to the word ‘surgery,’ obviously everyone gets concerned, you don’t want to hear that. But the goal is to get him back this year.”
Concern is absolutely the proper response to back surgery, even though Nagy, as usual, tried to put a positive spin on an awful development.
“It’s hard to put and say everything’s 100%,” he said, “but it sounds like once this happens and you get the surgery, that things should be fixed and pretty good. That’s the good part in this whole thing.”
The Bears traded up to draft Jenkins — giving the Panthers second-, third- and sixth-round picks for Jenkins and a fifth-rounder — and decided to move him from right tackle, where many around the league thought he was a good fit, to the left side. They immediately cut reliable veteran Charles Leno to save much-needed salary cap space.
On the first day of training camp practice, Nagy said he had “back tightness.” Jenkins did not start training camp on the PUP list but nonetheless never played a snap. Instead, Jenkins rehabbed the injury while his teammates practiced. He was not spotted doing rehab work Monday, though.
It was clear the Bears were concerned about Jenkins’ availability before they agreed to sign 39-year-old tackle Jason Peters on Saturday. Jenkins signed his contract Monday but has yet to join the team while he goes through the coronavirus test intake process, which lasts five days for unvaccinated players. Nagy said he should arrive Thursday.
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