The Perplexing Jaquan Brisker Injury Situation

A few new injury concerns plague the Bears heading into the NFL's mid-point, including the strange case of Jaquan Brisker.

Brisker missed all last week with what the Bears were calling an illness, but was still listed questionable on the injury report until Saturday, when he was downgraded to out.

Because safety Eddie Jackson was being held out of the game after getting over his own foot injury, it meant backups Elijah Hicks and Duron Harmon were starting in the game.

It turns out Brisker wasn't ill. 

He was concussed.

"It's a little bit different explaining this, but lemme try to do the best I can," coach Matt Eberflus said before tearing into the explanation on Monday. "Jaquan Brisker, we reported that he's been ill for a week."

Brisker took a big hit near the end of the Oct. 22 game with the Las Vegas Raiders and the Bears checked him out for a concussion, but he was removed from the protocol.

"So Sunday, Monday, he checked out fine with the evaluation and with an independent neurologist, being cleared from the concussion," Eberflus said. "He was all set. Then Tuesday he reported that he was ill and had a fever. That persisted through Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. And Friday we brought him into the building. We was in here then still not feeling well. We ruled him out Saturday and then he wasn't feeling well. His illness cleared Saturday then Sunday he felt he was cleared in terms of his illness, and still felt a little bit off in terms of having different symptoms and those types of things. We got him re-evaluated."

Now Brisker is back in the concussion protocol.

"I understand that's unique," Eberflus said. "I've never had that happen before. But he got ill during that process and then when he was done being ill he still had the symptoms. We were working with Jaquan the whole way, talking to him, making sure he was squared away.

"The most important thing is our players' safety and health."

Another strange injury was center Lucas Patrick waking up with back soreness that caused him to be placed on the injury report Sunday morning prior to the game as questionable but it proved to be no problem.

What was a potential problem was a knee injury suffered by middle linebacker Tremaine Edmunds. He bumped knees and was on the field for a while afterward. It will be a week-long watch for the Bears as to his condition but Eberflus seemed to think Monday that Edmunds avoided a serious injury.

"Yeah, it seemed that way but he came back and played a few plays, and that's always a good sign," Eberflus said.

He also left again after returning. Jack Sanborn moved over from strong side linebacker to replace Edmunds when the injury occurred.

The other situation is tackle Braxton Jones, whose window for returning from injured reserve is still open. He went through last week practicing on a limited basis without a full go and was left on IR.

"We'd like to get him out there this week," Eberflus said. "We'll see where he is. We evaluate him day to day. We're hopeful he'll get out there."