Chicago Bears cornerback Kyler Gordon practiced in full all week in preparation for the team’s road contest against the Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field, but he still won’t play in the game.
Instead Gordon will remain on the physically unable to perform (PUP) list with a calf injury, which is where he began the regular season. Courtney Cronin of ESPN reported the unfortunate news via X on Saturday, October 10.
She also noted that Gordon has roughly a week and a half remaining, during which time he must convince the Bears that he is healthy enough to play and to pull him off the PUP list, then assign him to the active roster.
“Kyler Gordon (calf) still has time to come off PUP given his return to practice window opened a week after [linebacker Noah] Sewell and Shemar Turner,” Cronin wrote. “It closes on Oct. 21.”
Should Chicago ultimately decide not to activate Gordon by the aforementioned date, he will revert to the PUP list and the Bears will lose the $40 million cornerback for the season.
Kyler Gordon’s History of Soft-Tissue Injuries Remains Troubling
Hopefully, Chicago is simply playing it safe with Gordon because he has such a long and troubling history of soft-tissue injuries.
Gordon played in just three games last season due to similar problems. He also missed all of training camp and the preseason this summer due to his calf injury.
The cornerback departed the team in September to rehabilitate on his own. However, he rejoined the Bears ahead of their Week 4 game against the New York Jets. Gordon then elevated to a full-time practice participant all this week prior to Chicago’s contest against the Packers.
It was Sewell whom the team activated off PUP heading into Green Bay, and thus the linebacker will occupy the one open spot on the 53-man roster that Chicago held throughout the week. Most analysts presumed that slot would go to Gordon, Sewell or Turner.
Ryan Poles, Ben Johnson Had Grown Frustrated With Kyler Gordon Ahead of Regular Season
Both head coach Ben Johnson and general manager Ryan Poles have expressed frustration with Gordon’s injury history stretching back to the 2025 offseason.
Poles actually went so far as to indicate in September that the CB’s time with the franchise could potentially come to an end if he did not sort out his injury concerns sooner than later.
It appears that Gordon has done everything for which the Bears hoped in the weeks since. He still has all three years remaining on his record-setting deal and is playing this season at just 26 years old.
Chicago’s defense has performed admirably over the past three weeks, but it is still lacking from both a talent and depth standpoint, and Gordon’s return to full health would prove a huge boost to the unit heading into the teeth of the regular season.
The Bears (3-1) are 1.5-point road favorites against the Packers (2-2) as of Saturday evening.
Bears’ Kyler Gordon Gets Bad Injury News, Faces Ticking Clock on NFL Return