The Bears are facing a daunting task in their secondary as they head in to Sunday's game in London against Trevor Lawrence and the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Cornerback Tyrique Stevenson is doubtful for the game because of the calf injury that limited his participation in Thursday's practice. He was unable to practice on Friday.
Normally this wouldn't be a problem because backup cornerback Terell Smith frequently is praised by coaches for his effectiveness and level of play near what starters have shown. But Smith is out this week and back in the U.S. with a hip injury.
So the Bears will likely start Jaylon Jones at cornerback.
They already knew they'd be down a safety because Jaquan Brisker is back in the U.S. with a concussion. So, not only are the Bears dealing with their first missed game due to injury among defensive starters this season, they'll likely face two missed starters.
Jones is an undrafted rookie from Mississippi who signed with the Bears in 2022. It's the first time since his rookie year that Jones has had to start. He started four games that season and had a 97.3 passer rating against for a season when he played 464 defensive snaps. He has played just 158 defensive snaps since that season.
The one positive on the injury side for the secondary was slot cornerback Kyler Gordon was able to practice in full both Thursday and Friday and was removed from the injury report. On Wednesday, he had a heel injury that would have limited his participation had a full practice been held that day
The Bears head into the game with guard Teven Jenkins questionable to play with an ankle injury. He was involved in Friday's practice on a limited basis after he couldn't practice on Thursday and had been listed as limited on Wednesday. Jenkins suffered the ankle injury and left last week's win over Carolina because of the ankle injury, and was playing with bruised ribs in the game.
If he's unable to go, he'd either be replaced by Bill Murry or they would move right guard Matt Pryor into left guard and use a different right guard, possibly Nate Davis.
