Bears activate Teven Jenkins, flex 2 from the practice squad

With his three-week practice window expiring this week, the Chicago Bears had a decision to make on rookie offensive tackle Teven Jenkins, and what was reported yesterday if finally official today. The Bears have activated Jenkins from injured reserve. A decision on him being active for Sunday’s gams against the Arizona Cardinals won’t come until 90 minutes before kickoff, but even if he does suit up for his debut game, I wouldn’t expect him to get much playing time.

The Bears moved up to select Jenkins in the second round of the 2021 NFL Draft, and shortly thereafter announced he’d be playing left tackle as a professional. He played most of his Oklahoma State reps on the right side, but his entire offseason after opting out of his last few college game was spent working on left tackle technique. Charles Leno Jr., Chicago’s incumbent starting left tackle, was cut a couple days after the draft, thus opening the door for Jenkins to start as a rookie.

Jenkins aggravated his back working out in the offseason, and he and the Bears decided surgery was the best option. He went under the knife in mid August and the team called it a minor procedure that would clear up all his back issues.

“We knew everything about his back coming out... everybody knew,” Bears general manager Ryan Pace said via the Chicago Sun Times. “When he showed up for training camp, he was experiencing different symptoms than he ever had in college, so we kind of worked through that. We tried to go through all of the natural processes... at the end of the day, it did require a surgery. It was a common surgery.”

The fact that Jenkins was able to make it back for this season is a sign the surgery was a success, and I can’t wait to see him mauling defenders.

“Without getting into details, he started having some pain down his leg — I think just from the nerve,” Pace continued. “The good thing? As soon as we did [the surgery], those symptoms went away. So we feel good about it.”

“We’re excited about the player, excited about where he’s heading,” Pace said back before the season started, “now we feel we fixed the problem.”

These last few weeks has seen Jenkins playing both right and left tackle in practice, and Jenkins has said he is more comfortable on the left side. The current left tackle starter is 39-year old Jason Peters, so eventually getting Jenkins some in-game reps would be a wise decision for the future of the franchise.

In other Bears roster news they announced that they have flexed outside linebacker Bruce Irvin and wide receiver Rodney Adams from the practice squad to the active roster for tomorrow’s game.

I did a quick podcast/video hit earlier this morning and you can check that out right here.