All three Bears coordinators have the coronavirus.
Offensive coordinator Bill Lazor, defensive coordinator Sean Desai and special teams coordinator Chris Tabor tested positive this week.
The team is still working through who will call plays if they can’t coach Monday night against the Vikings. They will participate in meetings via Zoom.
The Bears changed Thursday’s practice to a walk-through, and may do the same Friday, coach Matt Nagy said Thursday.
With very few exceptions, all coaches league-wide are vaccinated. Vaccinated players and coaches must test negative twice in 48 hours to be eligible to return.
The Bears have put six players on the reserve/COVID-19 list — five this week.
Monday, they put defensive lineman Mario Edwards on the list. Tuesday, he was joined by starting nose tackle Eddie Goldman, starting cornerback Artie Burns and outside linebacker Sam Kamara. Wednesday, starting right tackle Larry Borom on the list. Tackle Elijah Wilkinson — who would ordinarily be Borom’s backup — has been on the list since late November.
Three of the Bears on the list are unvaccinated: Edwards, Wilkinson and Goldman. Unvaccinated players who have tested positive must sit out at least 10 days. Edwards tested positive for the virus, so he’ll miss Monday’s game against the Vikings. It’s unclear if Goldman tested positive or is a close contact. If it’s the latter, he must quarantine for at least five days.
The league put the Bears under intensive protocols earlier this week, which limits how they can gather and mandates mask usage.
The Bears could turn to senior defensive assistant Mike Pettine, a former Browns head coach and Packers coordinator, to call plays if Desai can’t coach in the game. Brian Ginn is the Bears’ assistant special teams coach. Nagy could call plays on offense.
