With Badara Traore on reserve/COVID-19 list, Bears alter practice plan Monday

A Bears practice squad player tested positive for COVID-19 over the weekend. The Bears subsequently placed practice squad offensive lineman Badara Traore on the reserve/COVID-19 list.

The Bears were scheduled to return to practice Monday, but the team had to alter that plan. Head coach Matt Nagy said all practice squad players remained at home Monday as a precautionary measure.

That meant the Bears were more than a dozen players short at practice Monday, so they instead did a short walk-through and a lift in the weight room. All team meetings Monday were scheduled to take place over Zoom, rather than in person.

Nagy said Traore is doing well. Traore, 23, signed with the Bears as an undrafted free agent in the spring.

Nagy estimated Traore was last in the facility on Thursday or Friday. Practice squad members do not join the team on the sideline during games, so Traore was not at Soldier Field on Thursday when the Bears played Tampa Bay.

“I haven’t talked to him in a couple days, but I think he’s doing pretty good,” Nagy said. “More than anything, when you’re in these positions, just from talking to him, he feels bad because he doesn’t know when it happened.”

Nagy said the Bears feel relatively lucky that the positive test happened when it did. After a Thursday night game this week, the Bears had an extended layoff and the players had a day off Saturday and were out of the facility when they learned of the positive test.

The Bears held a team Zoom meeting Sunday night to discuss the situation and changes to the practice plan this week.

“At the start of the season, we said every day is going to be different,” Nagy said. “Our communication here has been really, really good from top down.”

The Bears are scheduled to return to practice Wednesday, Thursday and Friday in preparation for Sunday’s game against the Carolina Panthers in Charlotte, North Carolina.