The Chicago Bears were hit with a tough blow on Tuesday after it was revealed edge rusher Montez Sweat would miss the next two games because of a suspension.
And now, the Bears will be even more short-handed at edge rusher thanks to the injury to Dayo Odeyingbo.
According to Bears head coach Ben Johnson on Wednesday, the veteran defensive end is expected to miss time with his quad injury, which forced his early exit from the Week 5 game.
The good news is, he will avoid an injured reserve stint, which means the Bears do not expect him to miss more than three contests.
"Bears head coach Ben Johnson said Dayo Odeyingbo will likely miss time with a quad injury, but it shouldn't require a stint on IR," Kevin Fishbain of The Athletic relayed.
Odeyingbo entered the season as a major question mark after his disappointing first season in Chicago that included a torn Achilles. But he has been everything the Bears could have hoped for through five games.
Odeyingbo has posted three sacks in that span, the second-most on the team behind Austin Booker, and he leads the Bears with 14 pressures.
Now, with no Odeyingbo and Sweat for quite possibly the next two games, that's five sacks and 27 pressures wiped out from the Bears' defense.
How Bears will fill the void
With Odeyingbo and Sweat out, the Bears are going to need Austin Booker to anchor the pass-rush.
Booker has been hot the last two weeks with three sacks and four pressures in that span, and he leads the team with four overall, which is just 0.5 shy of his career-high.
Booker has expressed frustration with playing time. Well, now he's going to get a lot more.
Elsewhere on the roster, the Bears have Jamree Kromah, Daniel Hardy, James Lynch and Shemar Turner, who was activated off Chicago's PUP list after Sweat was suspended.
Those four players have a combined total of 3.5 sacks during their careers, and all of them have come from Lynch. Turner has just five career games under his belt and Kromah has never played a regular season snap.
It's too bad that veteran defensive end Marcus Davenport decided to retire recently because the Bears could really use him.
Chicago would be wise to explore its options in free agency because, as we saw last week, the secondary can't be trusted to hold off a passing attack if there isn't consistent pressure.
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