LAKE FOREST, Ill. (AP) — An apparent knee injury to running back Kyle Monangai ruined what initially looked to be a positive day for the Chicago Bears, who returned to practice Sunday after their 34-10 preseason win over the Cleveland Browns on Saturday.
Monangai was taken down by defensive tackle Grady Jarrett in a practice without pads and failed to get up after the play. He later was helped up and walked slowly with trainers about 100 yards to Halas Hall.
The Bears did not immediately update his status. Monangai ran for 783 yards as a rookie last year in a backfield rotation with D’Andre Swift. Monangai had an unspecified injury earlier in camp but quickly returned and has been working with the team but did not play in Saturday’s preseason opener.
“With Kyle, can’t say enough good things about him,” Bears guard Joe Thuney said. “Hopefully it’s nothing too crazy or significant. But football is football. It’s tough. I hope he’s all right.”
The injury occurred on a day when last year’s starting left tackle, Ozzy Trapilo, came off the physically unable to perform list and took part in the early, individual work at practice, but not the scrimmage. Trapilo had a patellar tendon injury against Green Bay in the playoffs and had been expected to miss more time, but is back working toward a return.
Trapilo coming back to the practice field and the return of Braxton Jones at left tackle from an injury earlier in camp made for a much different picture at that position than in Saturday’s game. Kiran Amegadjie and Jedrick Wills Jr. had played left tackle against the Browns.
“Can you believe it?” Thuney said about Trapilo. “It’s awesome, Just a credit to him, the staff here, trainers, weight staff, everybody. It’s just great to see him back in the field.
“Who knows what the timetable will be? But great to see him moving in football positions again, helmet on. He had another great year last year and it’s cool to see him out there.”
Coach Ben Johnson had called the first preseason game the point when he wanted to have a starter named in the battle for left tackle between Jones, Amegadjie and Wills, but Jones’ injury for the past two weeks has complicated this. The return of Trapilo further clouds the picture.
“As soon as we can make a decision, we feel clear and confident this is the person to go forward with, we’d love to be able to do that,” offensive coordinator Press Taylor said. “Until then, we’ll let the process play out.”
Wills allowed a sack in Saturday’s game as he and Amegadjie split playing time.
“It wasn’t perfect,” Taylor said. “It wasn’t as clean as we’d love it to be going forward. And that’s kind of why there still continues to be an open competition for the position.”
The Bears had defensive end Montez Sweat back from injury for part of practice, and also injured back Cam Lewis returned from injury, but safety Xavier Woods was unavailable after suffering a groin injury in Saturday’s game.
The Bears also were without starting cornerback Tyrique Stevenson for Sunday’s practice.
The Bears go to Cincinnati later in the week for practice against the Bengals and a Saturday game.
___