Chicago Bears' Young working his way back

BOURBONNAIS - An optimist would look at Willie Young's team-high and career-best 10-sack season in 2014 and see a glass half full.

A pessimist would focus on Young's torn Achilles tendon in December and see a glass half empty.

Coach John Fox is optimistically hoping to have Young back by the season opener, but that would require a near-miraculous recovery from an injury that often takes a full year to completely rehabilitate.

Adding to the challenge is a position change, transitioning from defensive end in a 4-3 scheme to outside linebacker in the Bears' base 3-4 alignment.

Young has a long way to go, and he's off to a slow start because of the injury. While teammates are practicing, he's limited to individual work on a side field, doing nothing more strenuous than jogging sideline to sideline and doing ladder drills at half-speed.

"I'm not completely out of shape," the sixth-year veteran said, "but it's a different routine conditioning on your own and (being in) football shape."

An enthusiastic fisherman, Young was able to incorporate his avocation with his vocational rehabilitation, which might explain his upbeat attitude. Asked if he believes he will ever be back to 100 percent, Young didn't hesitate.

"Absolutely," he said. "I'm still able to fish. I was doing a lot of rehab this off-season on the boat. You know, balancing on one leg on the ocean, kind of rocking the boat so it requires me to work on my balance and stuff like that. It's all just working itself out just fine."

But if Young's progress is impeded by injury-related complications, it's not inconceivable that the Bears could part ways with him and save the $2.45 million in base salary he's owed this year and next. That isn't something Young wastes time contemplating.

"I'm not worried about all that, man," he said. "I came in as a seventh-round draft pick, and I started from the bottom, so ain't nowhere for me to go but up. I'm not concerning myself with what might happen or what could happen. I've got too much ahead of me to worry about."

Although he started 36 games at North Carolina State, Young was almost an afterthought on draft day. In his first three seasons with the Lions, he never started a game and had a total of just 3 sacks. He added 3 more when he started 15 games for Detroit in 2013.

The Bears got him for a bargain ($9 million over three years) in free agency, gambling correctly that he was an ascending player. He wound up last season with 4 more sacks than he had in his first four years combined. And, among Bears linemen, only Jared Allen had more tackles than Young's 55.

It remains to be seen if Young can be as effective in the new scheme.

"I don't know anything about playing linebacker, so obviously I study day in and day out now," he said. "It's never a day off."

But he can joke about that, too. Asked when the last time was that he covered anyone - one of the duties of outside linebackers - Young said, "It was just the other day. I covered my son up when he went to sleep. I pulled the covers up, kissed him and said I'd see him later."

As for the monotony of rehab and answering the same questions repeatedly, Young takes it in stride.

"That's a part of me being a professional," he said. "I'm ready for whatever. I go fishing and the forecast says it isn't going to rain, but guess what? It might rain.

"But I got me a 100-mile-an-hour Bass Pro Shop dry suit right in the drop storage hatch and I can easily walk to the front of my boat, pull it out, put it on and you're ready for the occasion."

It'll take some good fortune and steady improvement, with no setbacks, in order for the Bears' reigning sack leader to be ready for the occasion of the Green Bay Packers game on Sept. 13 at Soldier Field.

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