Nov 18, 2018; Chicago, IL, USA; Chicago Bears quarterback Mitchell Trubisky (10) leaves the field after the Bears defeated the Minnesota Vikings at Soldier Field. Mandatory Credit: Matt Cashore-USA TODAY Sports
November 22, 2018
Quarterback Chase Daniel is expected to start Thanksgiving Day at Detroit for the Chicago Bears with starter Mitchell Trubisky listed as doubtful.
Trubisky is 7-3 on the year and passed for 355 yards in the first meeting of this season against the Lions, but he showed up on the injury report with a sprained AC joint in his right shoulder, the result of a direct hit from Vikings safety Harrison Smith on Sunday night. Trubisky was unable to practice Wednesday and head coach Matt Nagy said Tuesday the Bears would be cautious with the second-year quarterback, who was drafted No. 2 overall in 2017.
“He wants to play, I know that,” Nagy said. “But we’ve got to make sure in these situations that we’re doing the right thing.”
Daniel is in his fourth season in the Nagy offensive system, including a stint from 2013-15 with the Kansas City Chiefs when Nagy was the quarterbacks coach. He made his last NFL start in 2014.
–Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers is donating $1 million to the North Valley Community Foundation in California to help with the Camp Fire recovery efforts.
“Let’s help these people begin to heal and rebuild,” Rodgers said in a video announcing his pledge. Rodgers said he reached out directly to the mayor of his hometown of Chico, Calif., to find out the best way he could help. State Farm is partnering with Rodgers to match his donation.
Rodgers was wearing a Butte Strong sweatshirt in the video and wore the same shirt after last week’s game against the Seattle Seahawks. Rodgers played football at Butte Community College in Oroville before transferring to Cal.
–Former NFL quarterback Aaron Murray will play in the startup Alliance of American Football league, he confirmed.
“Excited to get back to the game I love with an opportunity to play in @TheAAF,” Murray tweeted. He has been assigned to the Atlanta Legends.
Murray, 28, played collegiately at Georgia, and he’s the Bulldogs’ all-time leading passer with 13,166 yards and 121 touchdown passes in four seasons.
–The Green Bay Packers activated wide receiver Jake Kumerow off of injured reserve, meaning fellow receiver Geronimo Allison is officially out for the season.
Kumerow was a star for the Packers during a preseason in which quarterback Aaron Rodgers openly called out young receivers. Undrafted out of Wisconsin-Whitewater in 2014, the 26-year-old Kumerow has yet to catch a pass in a regular-season game.
This preseason, however, he had six catches for 190 yards and two scores in the preseason. But on perhaps his biggest play of preseason, Kumerow dove into the end zone to cap an 82-yard catch-and-run touchdown and sprained the AC joint in his shoulder on the dive.
–Baltimore Ravens guard Marshal Yanda strongly denied accusations that he spit at Cincinnati Bengals linebacker Vontaze Burfict during last Sunday’s game. There is video evidence that displays Yanda spitting but he said it “100 percent” did not land on Burfict. Yanda met with reporters on Wednesday and said he was disturbed that his character was called into question. He vehemently denied spitting at Burfict on multiple occasions.
“I take a lot of pride in my character and how I was raised and the things I do day in and day out,” Yanda told reporters. “I would never, ever, spit on another man, another person, another individual — ever. On the field, off the field, never. That’s not the way I was raised, that’s not the way I raise my kids.”
The incident occurred after a play in which there was a minor scuffle during Baltimore’s 24-21 win. Yanda was around a group of players and Burfict was lying on the ground. After Yanda spit, there was no response by the Cincinnati players in the area, including Burfict.
–The short-handed Cincinnati Bengals defense lost another key member when starting middle linebacker Preston Brown was placed on injured reserve.
Hardy Nickerson is expected to take his place, and the Bengals signed free-agent defensive end Kasim Edebali in a corresponding move. Brown finishes the season with 42 tackles in seven games (missing three) and two interceptions, a year after tying for the NFL lead with 144 tackles while with the Bills. He never missed a game for Buffalo.
The fifth-year player was signed to a one-year deal with Cincinnati, his hometown team, before sustaining a nagging ankle injury in the season opener. He hasn’t played since the Nov. 11 game against the New Orleans Saints when he injured his right knee.
–Field Level Media
