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ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler is reporting that Chicago Bears linebacker Tremaine Edmunds, a 2019 and 2020 Pro Bowler who signed a four-year, $72 million contract with Chicago in 2023, is expected to be activated from the injured reserve leading up to the Bears’ Saturday game against the Green Bay Packers. Edmunds has been dealing with a groin injury, which led to his stint on the injured reserve, but was listed as questionable by Chicago on Thursday in the final injury report of the week.
Edmunds had his 21-day practice window open up this week and was limited on Wednesday (Tuesday featured a walkthrough for the Bears), but was able to give it a full go on Thursday.
There are some split opinions on how much impact Edmunds will have against the Packers. Below is an excerpt from our game preview with Bill Zimmerman of Windy City Gridiron, our sister site covering the Bears:
Edmunds has been a punching bag for me and a lot of other Bears fans during his first couple of years in Chicago. I am never a fan of paying an off-ball linebacker significant dollars, but the Bears did it with Edmunds and didn’t get a great return. But this year, we’ve seen a far different Edmunds. He’s been a lot more of an attacking player rather than letting the play come to him. He has tremendous size and length and does a great job making it difficult for quarterbacks to throw over the middle of the field, and he certainly has a nose for creating turnovers. His numbers in 10 games this year look similar to his full-season statistics from previous years. I do think Edmunds goes, but if he doesn’t, D’Marco Jackson has been really outstanding. Dennis Allen had familiarity with him from the New Orleans Saints, and they brought him in due to some linebacker injuries after the Saints cut him. He’s done an excellent job filling in when needed to the point where he actually won defensive player of the week last week for his performance against the Browns.
The Packers made some transactions of their own on Friday, adding defensive end Brenton Cox Jr. to the 53-man roster from the injured reserve, downgrading defensive end Collin Oliver to out against the Bears and placing running back MarShawn Lloyd back on the injured reserve to make room for Cox’s addition.
