It’s a quick turnaround week, which always magnifies the injury report for teams. The Bears are not without injuries, as Kyle Monangai, Jonah Jackson, and TJ Edwards have all been sidelined this week. The Patriots, however, had their OL decimated on Sunday against the Jets.
Guards Alijah Vera-Tucker and Ben Brown, and Tackle Morgan Moses all had varying injuries Sunday that put their statuses in question for Thursday’s matchup in Chicago. This adds to an already ailing OL in New England with Greg
Van Roten, Michael Owenwu, and Marcus Bryant on IR.
This leaves the Bears with a golden opportunity — get pressure up the middle, and disrupt Drake Maye quickly. The third year QB currently has his highest career pressure % at 26.2%, an uptick of 5% from last season. Losing three starters isn’t going to help. You have to expect a combination of rookie Caleb Lomu, Matt Pryor, and Walter Rouse to fill in for their teammates’ absences.
Lomu and Rouse have about 300 snaps in their careers between them, while Pryor — a vet that Bears fans are very familiar with — has a fair amount of experience and is capable of providing quality starts. Still, this opens up a major opportunity for the Bears.
Enter Grady Jarrett.
Jarrett, one of the big DL acquisitions in the 2025 offseason, has been more disruptive in 2026 than 2025, despite his numbers still lagging. While he hasn’t yet recorded a sack, he has 5 pressures, 3 hurries, and two QB hits through 6 games this season. Much of his game needs to be seen live, though, as his presence has been felt more often, setting up others for sacks or impact plays.
For instance, watch this sack Dayo Odeyingbo has on Jalen Hurts. Grady Jarrett’s stunt and pressure forces Hurts to step up, right into the arms of Dayo:
This is the type of impact Jarrett is going to have to make on Thursday against a jump start Patriots squad.
After starting the season 1-2, New England is on a bit of a tear, winning their last three games by a combined 38 points. Maye is at the center of that, and he has proven to have a propensity for going downfield, as evidenced by his 5th-best 8.0 yards per pass attempt. The Packers game illustrated the Bears’ weakness in covering deep passes, and their need to maintain several defenders in coverage against QBs with a strong deep ball.
So getting pressure on four man fronts will be even more critical for the Bears. With Grady Jarrett going up against two potential backups in Matt Pryor and Walter Rouse, he could do some serious damage in limiting Maye’s ability to throw downfield.
If the Bears are to win this Thursday, I think that Jarrett needs to create one or two sacks for himself or others. If he doesn’t, it may force Allen to generate some blitzes and Maye could pick them apart.
