Getty Bears head coach Matt Eberflus.
The Chicago Bears are shutting down one of their veteran trade acquisitions — guard/center Ryan Bates — for roughly the next month of the 2024 season.
According to the team’s transaction wire for September 14, the Bears placed Bates on their injured reserve list on September 14 in a series of roster moves ahead of their prime-time matchup with the Houston Texans on Sunday Night Football.
Bates has been dealing with a shoulder injury since training camp, but the team cleared him to play in Week 1’s win over the Tennessee Titans and rotated him in at right guard with starter Nate Davis. Bates also picked up a new elbow injury in the victory that — compounded with his initial shoulder issue — derailed him in practice.
After Bates practiced on Wednesday as a limited participant, the Bears downgraded him to “did not participate” for Thursday’s and Friday’s final practices for Week 2. The team then ruled him out in its final injury report for the matchup with the Texans.
Bates will now miss the next four games for the Bears and will not be eligible to return to their 53-man roster until Week 6’s game against the Jacksonville Jaguars in London.
The Bears also made two other roster moves on Saturday, signing long snapper Scott Daly to take Bates’ vacated spot on the 53-man roster and flexing wide receiver Collin Johnson from the practice squad to the game-day roster for Sunday Night Football.
Bears Depending Solely on Nate Davis at Right Guard
The Bears believed they had found a versatile starting candidate for the interior of their offensive line when they traded a 2024 fifth-round pick in March to the Buffalo Bills in exchange for Bates, a 27-year-old lineman capable of playing at both center and guard.
At best, Bates would enter the 2024 season as their new starting center to help protect No. 1 overall quarterback Caleb Williams. At worst, he would provide valuable interior depth as a rotational player behind Coleman Shelton at center and Davis at right guard. He did more of the latter against the Titans in Week 1, but he also played twice as many snaps (38) as Davis (18) coming off the bench in their open competition at the position.
Alas, Bates’ placement on injured reserve throws Chicago’s plans out the window. For at least the next four games — and maybe longer — the Bears will need to depend on Davis to play up to the value of his $30 million contract and hold down the right guard spot. If he cannot, the Bears will not have much of an alternative until Bates returns to the fold.
Bill Murray, a 2023 practice-squad player, is their top backup guard behind both Davis and left-side starter Teven Jenkins. While he played well enough during the preseason to earn himself a spot on the 53-man roster, it would be a massive risk for the Bears to promote him in place of Davis given he has played zero regular-snaps snaps on offense.
Davis held up fairly well as a pass blocker against the Titans and gave up just 1 pressure and 1 quarterback hurry on his passing downs. The Bears must hope now that he can maintain his effectiveness in a full game’s worth of work.
Can Bears’ Interior OL Survive Without Ryan Bates?
Bates landing on injured reserve creates more problems for the Bears than just a forced decision on their right guard battle. With the veteran guard/center unavailable, they are now largely locked into Shelton — who struggled in Week 1 — as their starting center.
While Shelton had a few good moments as a run-blocker in the season opener, the Titans dominated him as a pass-blocker and forced him to surrender one sack, one hurry and two pressures. In one instance, on third-and-goal with 35 seconds left in the first half, Titans linebacker Ernest Jones IV bowled over Shelton and got immediate pressure on Williams, hitting his arm and forcing an incompletion on the play.
As a result, the Bears had to settle for a field goal to close out the half down 17-3.
Like with Davis, though, Bates was the top replacement option for Shelton at center if the Bears felt they needed to go in a different direction. Without him, the Bears’ only current alternative at center is 2022 sixth-round pick Doug Kramer Jr. who had a good preseason but did not play a single snap in either of his first two seasons in the NFL.
Perhaps the Bears will seek out more help in free agency or on the trade market in the coming weeks without Bates, but it is fair to wonder — and worry — how their interior offensive line will hold up until then, especially against a strong Texans defensive front.
