Momentum continued to build for the Bears’ offense Friday with the expectation that two starting offensive linemen will be back Sunday against the Dolphins.

The Bears activated left guardCody Whitehairwill from injured reserve, and right tackleLarry Boromcleared the concussion protocol and practiced in full for the first time Friday.

Whitehair started 99 of a possible 101 games before spraining his right knee in Week 4 against the Giants and missing four games. He has been back at practice for a week, and his performance was convincing as the Bears debated whether he should return.

“His movement’s good; his jumps were good,” coachMatt Eberflussaid. “The strength staff did a nice job of getting him ready to go, and he’s looked good in practice.”

Whitehair began his career as a center and made the Pro Bowl there in 2018, but has mostly played left guard the last four seasons. The Bears likely will keepSam Mustipherat center and play Whitehair in his natural spot.

Whitehair is the Bears’ longest-tenured player, but missing significant time during a season was new to him. Nonetheless, he felt fully confident about jumping back in after the layoff.

“It will take a little bit of time to adjust, but I’ve played enough ball,” he said. “It will be like riding a bike.”

The Bears still haven’t gotten their intended starting offensive line on the field and won’t any time soon because centerLucas Patrickis out with a toe injury. He is on injured reserve and can’t return until Week 12 against the Jets.

The only offensive lineman who hasn’t missed time this season is rookie left tackleBraxton Jones. He is the only player on the roster to play 100% of the snaps.

Bolstering the offensive line should only help quarterbackJustin Fieldsand an offense that has been significantly better over the last four week. The Bears also hope to get a boost from new wide receiverChase Claypool, whom they acquired from the Steelers this week.

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The Bears were headed to this point all along. It just took them a while to get there.

There was no doubt new general manager Ryan Poles needed to teardown much of therosterthat went 6-11 last season. This wouldn’t be a one-year fix, and it was time to set a course to be competitive in 2023 and contending in 2024. Even that timeline will be tough to meet, but that’s about as long as most organizations are willing to wait.

But Poles needed to do it surgically so he didn’t hinder quarterback Justin Fields’ development, and there has been significant concern that he did. All of his offensive line and wide receiver acquisitions were low-cost, and it’s difficult to get good personnel on the cheap.

Poles finally finished the initial phase of his plan over the last two weeks. He dealt defensive end Robert Quinn and his enormous contract, eliminated the prospect of paying linebacker Roquan Smith by trading him and, at long last, helped Fields by landing wide receiver Chase Claypool.

There are no more moves to make. So now what?

The Bears will begin answering that question Sunday against the Dolphins. They have nine games remaining, and those should be viewed through the lens of what they signal about next season and beyond.

That starts with Fields, as always.

He’s in the most efficient four-game stretch of his career. The next step is to up the production. He has averaged 182 yards passing and 69.3 yards rushing over the last four games — good, but not great.

If he is regularly putting up 250 yards passing per game by the end of the season, that would justify the Bears cementing him as their centerpiece and looking to add major talent around him in the upcoming draft rather than hit reset at the position.

Then there’s coach Matt Eberflus. The Bears need to be just as sure about his capability as they are about the quarterback. And a big piece of that equation is seeing what he does with a depleted defense.

The Bears just gave up 49 points to the Cowboys, and now — after losing Smith — they face a most prolific passing attack with Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa and wide receivers Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle.

It would be reasonable to expect the rest of this season to look somewhat like that loss to the Cowboys: Promising play by the offense, but a defense that is simply outmanned.

But it has to get better. Regardless of the roster, it’s unacceptable to continue giving up 40-plus points.

Eberflus was hired, in part, on the strength of his defensive expertise. He’s not a magician, but he must embrace the challenge of making this defense respectable.

“I love the way they learn,” he said of coaching a defense stocked with unproven players. “When a guy learns and progresses in the game, that’s very exciting. To be able to help a guy and put him in position to make plays with technique and fundamentals… that’s very enjoyable.

“Then the effort’s got to be there. That’s our No. 1 principle. That’s what we stand on.”

In some ways, this entire season is also an extensive tryout for long-term starting jobs.

The Bears went into the season with three players who seemingly had secured them: Smith, cornerback Jaylon Johnson and wide receiver Darnell Mooney. The list has fluctuated since.

Johnson and Mooney are still fixtures of the future, as are Claypool and rookie safety Jaquan Brisker. Fields is working toward it, along with running back David Montgomery, tight end Cole Kmet, rookie cornerback Kyler Gordon and others.

The more of them who prove themselves, the better off the Bears will be and the faster their rebuild will go. And that responsibility falls to Eberflus.

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Chicago Bears injury report Friday looks good

The Chicago Bears had several starters on their Week 9 injury report Wednesday. Defensive backs Kyler Gordon and Eddie Jackson were limited in practice earlier this week. Offensive lineman Larry Borom was out Wednesday, still battling a concussion. Offensive lineman Teven Jenkins was battling a back injury that had him limited at Practice on Wednesday.

According to the injury report released by the Bears Friday, all four of those players were full participants in Friday’s practice and do not have a designation for the game. Offensive lineman Ja’Tyre Carter was added to the list on Friday and is questionable for Sunday’s game against the Miami Dolphins.

Borom’s return is great news for the offensive line, who were missing several starters last week against the Dallas Cowboys. It’s possible the Chicago Bears could have Cody Whitehair back for the Dolphins game. An upgraded offensive line could help quarterback Justin Fields have more time to hit his new wide receiver, Chase Claypool.

The secondary needs Gordon and Jackson to be healthy this week as they take on one of the best wide receiver corps in the league. The Dolphins head to Chicago in Week 9 with the NFL’s third-highest passing yard average at 292.5 yards per game.

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The Bears finally helped quarterback Justin Fields at the trade deadline.

The Dolphins, though, have been building around quarterback Tua Tagovailoa since they drafted him– even when they weren’t sure that he was the answer.

The difference between the two approaches will be on full display when Tagovailoa leads the NFL’s best passing offense Sunday at Soldier Field. The third-year quarterback boasts the league’s highest passer rating and two of the NFL’s top four receivers.

Tagovailoa is 5-0 in games he finishes — he missed two starts after a scary concussion –and has been sacked on just 4.1 percent of his dropbacks, the fifth-best mark in the league. Pro Football Focus grades him as their third-best quarterback, one spot ahead of Chiefs star Patrick Mahomes.

None of it is by accident.

The Bears have only begun to invest in Fields. Trading for Steelers receiver Chase Claypool on Tuesday was the largest offensive commitment general manager Ryan Poles made since being hired in January. The Bears will have the most salary cap space in the NFL this offseason — and, for only the second time in five years, their own first-round pick.

Poles can only hope to build the structure around their quarterback that the Dolphins established over the last three seasons.

The Dolphins gave Tagovailoa two tackles, two receivers and a play-caller — and paid a steep price to do it. Consider:

o Less than two hours after drafting Tagovailoa No. 5 overall in 2020, the Dolphins drafted right tackle Austin Jackson at No. 18. The Bears haven’t drafted a tackle that high since they took Chris Williams No. 14 in 2008.

o In 2021, they chose Alabama receiver Jaylen Waddle sixth overall. The Bears have never drafted a receiver that high.

o In February, they hired 49ers offensive coordinator Mike McDaniel as their head coach and play-caller. A month earlier, bucking league trends, the Bears made Matt Eberflus the only defensive coordinator in the hiring cycle to get a head coaching job without already working for the franchise.

o In March, they signed Saints left tackle Terron Armstead to a five-year deal worth $43.4 million guaranteed and up to $87.5 million overall. The Bears have never written a check that large for a tackle.

o One day later, they dealt five draft picks for Chiefs for Tyreek Hill, then gave him a four-year, $120 million extension with $72.2 million guaranteed, the largest contract for a wideout in the history of the sport.

What’s remarkable about that level of investment is this: the Dolphins might not even be convinced their quarterback is a star.

The NFL punished the Dolphins in August for having impermissible contact with quarterback Tom Brady during both 2019 and 2021. The league found the Dolphins talked to Brady last year, while he was a member of the Buccaneers, about becoming a limited partner — and also perhaps playing for them.

The league stripped the Dolphins of next year’s first-round pick as part of their punishment. When the Dolphins traded their other 2023 first-round pick Tuesday for Broncos edge rusher Bradley Chubb, McDaniel confirmed it was an indication the team had seen enough to believe in Tagovailoa. Without a first-round pick in 2023, they couldn’t replace him if they tried.

“From the get-go,” McDaniel told reporters, “I’ve fully seen Tua as our quarterback.”

If the Bears come to the same conclusion about Fields at the end of the year, it will come with the opposite reasoning: that he succeeded despite the supporting cast, not because of it.

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Lucas Giolito talked about it often last season. The White Sox needed to have fun again. They had to bring joy back in the clubhouse and dugout.

That is only one layer of clubhouse culture, an element players insist matters more than outsiders might think. First-year manager Pedro Grifol, with his fresh voice and leadership after two seasons of Tony La Russa, will change it simply by being who he is. The players will welcome a change after a La Russa-led 81-81 season fell flat on its face.

It’s Grifol’s job to create a strong culture for his players.

“They first have to understand what culture is,” Grifol said. “Someone recently described it perfectly to me. He said culture is what it looks like, what it acts like and what it feels like, right? What it feels like is you can’t wait to get to the clubhouse and perform. What it looks like is when you’re watching us from up there, you want people to say ‘These guys are together, these guys are fighting together, they’re playing to win every single night.’ And obviously what it acts like is these guys are professionals. They respect the game, they respect the fans, they respect what they do and they really respect our team.”

Even when the Sox were rebuilding and losing under manager Rick Renteria, a culture was in place and a sense of unity was evident. Especially when they won in 2020 under Renteria, the Sox were full of life and a vivid example of the organization’s “Change the Game” motto.

Some of that was lost in 2021, even when the Sox won the AL Central. A lot of it was when they flopped in ’22. Injuries, hitting slumps, poor defense and baserunning will do that. Lacking energy can contribute, too.

“This was is an extremely talented ballclub,” said Grifol, who knew the Sox well from coaching against them six series a year. “It was a really difficult club to prepare for. Because if the energy was high, they could beat anybody in the game. And if the energy wasn’t, we were able to have some success against them. So my job and my staff’s job is to make sure that that energy is high every night and we’re prepared to win a ballgame.”

With shortstop Tim Anderson, the team’s energizer and batting champion who made the team go, limited to 79 games because of injuries, a leader was lost. Anderson was around the team while sidelined but wasn’t engaged in his usual, spirited manner.

Yoan Moncada (104 games), Yasmani Grandal (99), Luis Robert (98) and Eloy Jimenez (84) were also hurt a lot.

“There were a lot of injuries, so very rarely did we play a full Chicago White Sox team,” Grifol said. “Them going 81-81 and at times playing with not the energy they’re capable of playing with, you almost look at them like, damn, you guys really are talented. Because you had the injuries, the energy was off and on and you still won 81 games.”

La Russa promoted a culture of family, as Renteria did before him, but didn’t demand players to always run out ground balls, which became a bad look. Grifol says he’ll be big on accountability, which means “that you collaborate with everybody, you empower people to do their job and if you do that, it’s an easy conversation when they’re not doing it.”

“If you don’t empower people to be part of the process, you don’t communicate with people, you can’t hold anybody accountable.

“When we hit the field in spring training, the level of intensity to our practices, the level of intensity to our cage work, the details, attacking margins are going to be extremely critical in developing the culture and the chemistry of this club. I think these players are hungry for it. I think they want it, and once we get started, they’re going to see how prepared they’re going to be to … kick somebody’s butt.”

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The Chicago Bulls head to Boston looking to improve to 6-4, as they face the Celtics as betting underdogs.

The Chicago Bulls head east for a rematch of last Monday’s game that saw the Bulls take a 120-102 victory over the Boston Celtics. The Bulls led a balanced scoring attack in that game, with Demar Derozan, Nikola Vucevic, Zach LaVine and Ayo Dosunmu all finishing with at least 18 points.

Vucevic and Andre Drummond combined for 35 rebounds in that October meeting, falling 10 rebounds short of the entire Boston lineup in that game. Andre Drummond has been listed as out for this game as he nurses a shoulder injury.

The best bet of the day took a hit on Wednesday, as Vucevic’s 12 first half points were met with only two second half points to keep us under his point total. At 6-3 on the season, we are looking for a prime bounce back spot to get us to 7-3 heading into the weekend, and with any luck we’ll have a Bulls victory to go along with it. Best of luck tonight and this weekend, and GO BULLS!!

2022 Bulls Best Bet Record: 6-3

Game Total Under 223.5 (Sportsbook odds may vary)

This will be the first time this season that we are taking a crack at the game total for tonight’s matchup, and for a number of reasons, I strongly believe the under is the play to make out of this game.

This will be the second time in less than two weeks that these teams are squaring off, with the first seeing a 120-102 victory for our Chicago Bulls at the United Center.

I am honestly unsure what to expect as far the spread, as well as the offensive output from the Celtics tonight, but I do feel strongly about a Celtics team that hangs their hat on solid defensive play, showing up and keeping this a lower scoring affair, especially with the first game looming in recent memory.

That isn’t to suggest that the Bulls can’t have similar success defensively, but a Boston team that is 1-3 over their last four games with two tough overtime losses to the Cavs mixed in, this defense at home is going to be looking for a huge showing.

I haven’t brought many trends to these blogs yet this season, but with game totals in the NBA, there are some trends that I like to mention that can sometimes be a decent indication of what to expect.

In the case of the Chicago Bulls, and these often date back to previous seasons, they are 5-1 to the under in their last six games playing on one day of rest and are 11-4 to the under over their last 15 games following a straight up win. Boston boasts 4-0 to the under when playing on one day of rest, and over their last 13 games allowing more than 100 points, they are 9-4 to the under in the following game.

Statistically, the Celtics have not quite been the team that we saw go to the NBA Finals last season, but in my opinion, things are going to start returning to form soon. Through seven games, the Celtics rank 20th in defensive efficiency, yet stand at 11th in effective field goal percentage allowed. The schedule that Boston has faced has been incredibly tough to open the season, and had the overtime games against Cleveland gone differently, this team would be getting quite a bit more respect.

In the intro I mentioned the impact that Vucevic and Drummond made for the Chicago Bulls in the first meeting between these two teams. While Vucevic can certainly still make a great impact today, the Celtics who have been without their big man Robert Williams, will be pleased to see Drummond out of tonight’s rotation. Vucevic pulled down 10 offensive rebounds in that first matchup, but I’d be willing to bet that they have an adjusted game plan this time around and will obviously have different looks when Vooch is sitting on the bench.

To close things out, the Bulls are going to need to bring some defense of their own tonight if they are going to hang with this Boston team. The Celtics are going to be very hungry to get into the win column and enact some revenge on this Bulls team, and in doing so will most likely bring a stingy defensive effort. Let’s get a nasty win to get this Bulls win streak to three, why don’t we?

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Illinois Football moves to 7-1 and has the Michigan State Spartans who are wrapped in turmoil this week at home.

A quick recap of last week vs. Nebraska where the recipe was just as I said to win the game in Nebraska. Feed Chase Brown and have Tommy DeVito work off play fakes. Tommy DeVito was 20 of 22 for 179 and 2 touchdowns. That is beautiful efficiency and it has to do in large part to the work horse Chase Brown who had 32 carries for 149 and a touchdown. He also had 3 receptions with a touchdown as well. The defense is really incredible and truly allowed Illinois to find their game in the second half as neither side was able to break through too much in the first half. Overall great team win.

Michigan State stinks this year and you could see it from a mile away. Kenneth Walker was their whole entire team last year. Literally just him. Their secondary was miserable last year as was shown when Ohio State embarrassed them and just ran around them like they were on the playground. Their QB last year who is heir QB this year was horrible in Payton Thorne. I’ve talked about him already and how miserable he was and still is. Kenneth Walker was everything for them and more people are realizing that now as he is dominating as a rookie for Seattle. Mel Tucker is a decent coach that much is true but can you imagine after one season that was carried by one player you receive a $95 million dollar contract for 10 years. Jimbo Fisher got the same treatment at Texas A&M but he has a track record technically and a National Championship.

The final thing I’ll mention about Michigan State is the fight they found themselves in after the game. Not sure if it was really a fight it’s basically 10 Michigan State players against one Michigan guy. No clue why that Michigan guy was even there in the first place but he doesn’t deserve to get jumped like that. Either way Michigan State has suspended 8 players and the bad season gets even worse heading into a matchup they probably expected to win at the beginning of the year.

As for Illinois Football it is wonderful to see the issues following last Saturday with Michigan State. Being a superstitious person I have to say Illinois Football obviously has to take this game as serious as ever because one thing about Mel Tucker is that he is a motivator and will have players ready to hit this Saturday. Illinois has to make sure they crush their spirit early so that they fall back into their old ways of being bad and unmotivated. Playing at Memorial Stadium is going to be great as the fans have waited a good three weeks to see the Illini at home.

The plan is simple when you look at what got you to 7-1. Defense plays lights out and forces turnovers. Feed the ball to Chase Brown and allow DeVito to have success off play action. The recipe is there and they know it but it comes down to execution this Saturday. Bret Bielama is a heck of a coach and his preparation this year has shown. With great preparation by Bielama and rising confidence each week by the players Illinois football is looking good this weekend and beyond.

There are still plenty of games to play but I know we are all looking at this Michigan game in a couple weeks and wondering about Illinois Football chances if they lose. Well Illinois Football is still in the drivers seat if Michigan is their only remaining loss. They need to beat Purdue at home after this week and Illinois Football is heading to Indianapolis. If only Michigan could play Illinois football in Champaign this year it would be absolutely wild there.

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A former Chicago Bears wide receiver was released by the Kansas City Chiefs on Thursday

Former Chicago Bears draft pick Dazz Newsome is looking for a new home in the NFL as the season goes on. Newsome was released by the Bears during the preseason, failing to make the 53-man roster in his second year.

Since then, he’s had tryouts with a few teams including Tennessee and New England before signing to the Kansas City Chiefs practice squad last week. But that was a short stay as well.

Newsome was released off the Chiefs practice squad on Thursday, just days after signing:

The #Chiefs have terminated the practice squad contract of WR Dazz Newsome and signed former #Seahawks draft pick Ugo Amadi to the practice squad. Amadi was traded twice this season (SEA to PHI and PHI to TEN). The defensive back spent most of the past two months w/ the #Titans.

— Charles Goldman (@goldmctNFL) November 3, 2022

The former North Carolina standout was selected in the sixth round of the 2021 NFL draft by the Chicago Bears and was put on the practice squad his first year. He did appear in three games, recording six catches for 75 yards.

He also served as a punt returner for the Chicago Bears in a few games. But here in 2022, Newsome failed to catch the new regime’s eye despite struggles at wide receiver and was let go.

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