Teven Jenkins underwent back surgery in August, knocking him out until early December when he finally returned against the Green Bay Packers. It wasn’t the result anybody wanted. As it turns out though, the rookie probably could’ve gotten back even sooner had he accepted the reality he was facing back in the summer. Jeff Joniak spoke to the 2nd round pick about what happened with the back issue.
He asked if the rookie put too much pressure on himself to get back into the mix rather than address the issue. Jenkins admitted this was indeed the case. His desire to be “the guy” at left tackle and not get left behind. So instead of going with surgery, he tried all sorts of alternative treatments to see if he could get the back problem to calm down. It didn’t work. If anything he aggravated it further. As a result, he was forced to have surgery anyway and had lost precious time.
It isn’t an enviable scenario for a 23-year old kid.
He’d never had to deal with an injury of that magnitude in his life. Surgery was never a thought process he considered in the past. The idea of not playing football for months was anathema to him. He wants to play. He wanted to be what everybody expected when they moved up to draft him. Not being able to must’ve felt like a failure in his eyes. Thus Teven Jenkins decided to delay the surgery to see if he could battle through the pain.
It didn’t work. Thankfully things seemed to have worked out. The rookie admitted he hasn’t been this pain-free since high school. Despite penalty problems through his first two games, he showed flashes of the player the Bears fell in love with when drafting him. Given enough time and a streak of good health, it feels like Jenkins can be a rock solid tackle in the NFL. Something the Bears have lacked for a long time.
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