On Friday, Nagy asserted that he isn’t concerned with Long’s ankle and just wanted to get him some rest Thursday. But the Bears coach acknowledged the challenges involved in managing Long’s lingering ankle issues.
“That’s the number one thing that we need to understand is that it is going to linger,” Nagy said before Friday’s practice. “So there’s that fine line of doing too much but yet knowing that, hey, we need to get those reps in practice. It’s just too valuable to not practice. And he understands that. So it comes down to trust – us trusting him and believing where his pain is at. And then just week-by-week, we’ll evaluate it.”
With Long unable to practice fully, rookie James Daniels is next on the depth chart at right guard and in line to see more reps with the first-unit offense. Offensive coordinator Mark Helfrich didn’t seem worried that Long’s ankle issue would limit how much he’d be able to play Monday versus the Seahawks.
“My sense if he’ll be good to go,” Helfrich said. “He’s on a weird schedule all the time. … But I would expect that to be how it’s going to go for the rest of the year.”
