The expectation for Allen Robinson has always been for him to be fully cleared for the beginning of training camp, which would be about 10 months after he tore his ACL last season with the Jacksonville Jaguars. The same goes for Leonard Floyd, who suffered a season-ending knee injury in November.
Both players — who will be critical to how successful the Bears are in 2018 — participated during Wednesday’s OTA practice, albeit in limited fashions. The goal still is to work toward training camp, though getting whatever on-field practice work they can now is important to building a foundation for Bourbonnais.
More than anything, though, having both players on the field added a bit of a morale boost to a team that didn’t necessarily need one at this point.
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“It was good to have (Robinson) back out there, man,” quarterback Chase Daniel said. “When he was running out there, everyone got hyped, was high-fiving him and stuff like that. He’s right on track with his rehab and his schedule. He’s just a good dude. It’s good to have him out there, he brings good energy. Guys love to have him here.”
Robinson did not participate in team drills, and coach Matt Nagy said he probably won’t during next week’s mandatory veteran minicamp. Still, he was able to catch a few passes from Mitch Trubisky, which is work that can’t hurt with an eye on the start of training camp in a month and a half.
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For Nagy, It’s less about what Robinson did on Wednesday and more about him mentally being able to hit the practice field at this stage in his recovery process.
“It’s really good to see him out there, and he didn’t do enough to say what he did one way or the other but it’s a positive sign when he’s out there and he’s able to run some plays and just kind of for his mindset get out there,” Nagy said. “I think that’s one of the biggest things is that when you go through an injury like that is, and I personally went through it myself, so it can be one where physically you’re good to go and you feel really strong but you still have to get by that mindset of that so it’s going to be a day-by-day process for him. But to have him out there, I know it felt good for the offense, and that was good.
“… There’s no need to rush the kid,” Nagy said. “He’s really going in the right direction right now, no reason right now for us to do anything more than let him continue to be positive, go at his own pace when he feels good, and then when we get to training camp be ready to go.”
Floyd was able to do more during Wednesday’s practice, participating in some seven-on-seven work and giving the Bears a glimpse of what their full-strength outside linebacking corps could look like. Like Robinson, the Bears may not want to push Floyd for veteran minicamp, given how the significance of next week’s practices is dwarfed by those in July and August.
Still, the practice reps for Floyd now are important given how many he missed after his mid-November injury.
“I think (the injury) delays his development more last year when it happened and he missed the last whatever four or five games it was,” defensive coordinator Vic Fangio said. “But it has. There’s no way around that. Everybody needs as many reps in practice as they can get. He’s really anxious to do it. He’s been begging the trainers and medical people to let him out there a little earlier. But I think he’ll overcome it.”
It’s better to see these guys practicing than not, of course. And while the Bears are taking things slow with Floyd and Robinson, every practice rep they get before training camp helps them develop, grow and prepare for the 2018 season.
“Those are two important (players) on this team,” Nagy said, “that we feel really good that by training camp we'll be rocking and rolling.”