Several Bears injuries quickly test the creativity of Dennis Allen

“I think all those things are game-plan specific," he said. "Each week it could be different.

"I think the thing for us is we know that that's a valuable tool that we have a guy that we feel like is a shutdown corner that if we feel we need to match him up on a receiver, we have the ability to do that. There's certainly sometimes that we may not do that. It's all really game-plan specific.”

Edwards' hamstring is more of a problem because he hasn't practiced at all this week since the injury reports t, while Johnson at least has been going through limited practices. And Edwards had soft tissue injury issues back during OTAs at times, too.

Maybe the biggest injury the Bears already seem to have overcome this week is the one to defensive end Dominique Robinson.

Johnson seems to be on track to return from his groin injury and Allen loves playing with the most defensive backs possible, so he would find a way to compensate for the loss of Edwards by using more six-DB and five-DB packages and blitzing, or by getting rookie linebacker Ruben Hyppolite II in at times.

One thing more difficult to make up for would have been losing Robinson.

The Bears need a third defensive end to get Montez Sweat and Dayo Odeyingbo off the field at times for a rest. It matters by the end of games if they're not taking as many reps, but with Austin Booker on injured reserve it will come down to Robinson producing.

Robinson had been out with an oblique injury, but not only returned Thursday, he has come back to do full practices. He should be good to go if he doesn't aggravate the injury.

They do have one other option to lean on in passing situations and it seemed an unlikely one during training camp and the offseason. They were busy then trying to convert Daniel Hardy to strongside linebacker from defensive end. But Hardy has added weight to 255, which puts him closer to the 260-pound minimum Allen stuck to with his edge players in New Orleans. Hardy used to be around 240 pounds.

Even better, Hardy came up with a big preseason game against Kansas City as a pass rusher, and his special teams ability was never in question. So he made the team.

Free agent defensive end Za'Darius Smith signed Friday with Philadelphia, so Bears options at this position are pretty much down to Robinson and Hardy as the backup edge players, or Allen's creativity.

In this game, that creativity could include moving Gervon Dexter to the edge at times or even rookie Shemar Turner if he's among the active players. With rookies, you're usually better off keeping things simple, though, and that would mean leaving Turner at tackle.

Either way, Allen has to be happy he has Hardy and a much healthier Robinson for Monday night, even if their options for edge rushers on the free agent market have now dwindled to Isaiah Foskey or the much more expensive Jadeveon Clowney.