Bears tackle Teven Jenkins’ absence from the practice field came to an end on Saturday.
Jenkins missed seven straight practices after participating in the first session of training camp, but he went through individual drills in his first day back with the team. While Jenkins did not say what led to him sitting out or if it was related to last year’s back issues, he did say that the time off was for “the betterment of my health.”
“It feels really good and I’m not having any discomfort right now, so it’s really good,” Jenkins said, via Courtney Cronin of ESPN.com. “If I had to give myself a percent, probably around 90% and it’s just about working my body back into the feeling of football back again and getting back to that 100% of ‘this is football’ and get ready to go.”
There was a report that the Bears were talking about trading Jenkins during his time off the field and others indicating bad feelings between the team and the 2021 second-round pick. Jenkins was not working with the first team, but denied “clashing with coaches” and head coach Matt Eberflus said on Saturday that Jenkins is still competing for a spot with the first team.