The Bears’ offensive line has been struggling the last two weeks, and now they’ll be down their starting tackles Sunday against the Patriots.
Left tackle Braxton Jones will miss his second game in a row, and right tackle Darnell Wright is out after exiting the Cardinals game. Both players have knee injuries.
“It doesn’t happen very often, that’s for sure, but you’ve got to adjust,” coach Matt Eberflus said after practice Friday. “You’ve got to overcome those adversities. and the only way you do that is with the people in the building. You just rally around each other.”
All that really means is the Bears will cobble together whatever they can for an offensive line Sunday and hope for the best. As it was, the team has allowed the fifth-most sacks in the NFL (29) and averaged the fifth-fewest yards per carry (four).
And it gets worse. One of their top choices to back up Jones or Wright is rookie Kiran Amegadjie, but he’ll miss his second consecutive game with a calf injury.
Eberflus was secretive about his plans Friday, but the Bears started backup Larry Borom for Jones last week and finished the game with practice-squad call-up Jake Curhan in for Wright.
Teams typically try to make as few changes as possible, so there’s a good chance the Bears keep their interior line intact with left guard Teven Jenkins, center Coleman Shelton and right guard Matt Pryor. That said, Jenkins and Pryor have experience at tackle.
The Bears also will get veteran guard Ryan Bates (shoulder) back from injured reserve, and he’s available to play for the first time since the season opener. Bates worked mainly at center in training camp, but said Friday he can play tackle if needed.
Bates or Nate Davis theoretically could play right guard, freeing up Pryor to play tackle.
On the plus side for the Bears, the Patriots haven’t been great up front. They’re 29th in the NFL with 16 sacks and have allowed the seventh-most yards rushing at 136.9 per game.
They offloaded four-time Pro Bowl defensive end Matt Judon in the preseason — the Bears tried to trade for him but lost out to the Falcons — and second-year pass rusher Keion White leads the team with four sacks. They claimed former Bears defensive end Yannick Ngakoue (70 ½ career sacks) off waivers Friday, but it’s unknown whether he’ll be active Sunday.