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Chicago Bears' White, Fuller questionable for Sunday's opener

Pro Bowl guard Kyle Long (shoulder) and two other starters, wide receiver Kevin White (hamstring) and cornerback Kyle Fuller (knee), are questionable for Sunday's season opener against the Texans in Houston.

Long is expected to play. Fuller has been limited all week in practice and did not play in the preseason after having arthroscopic surgery.

White's injury didn't surface until Thursday's practice, and his status is iffy, since any kind of hamstring issue would seem to affect his ability to run full speed.

“Everybody's different,” coach John Fox said when asked about White. “Some people deal with it differently than others. Obviously that's a muscle group that's important especially in top-end running.

“We'll kind of evaluate that as we get closer. We don't have to make those decisions until an hour-and-a-half before kickoff, and we probably won't.”

White missed his entire rookie year in 2015 with shin splints that required surgery in August of that year.

Even if he plays Sunday, the injury could limit how he is used.

“Part of coaching is putting guys in position to succeed,” Fox said. “He's big, strong, fast, strong hands, explosive. He's a strong runner once he has the ball. So the more situations we can put him against our opponent in those types of areas the better.”

More on injuries:

Because the NFL has done away with the “probable” designation on injury reports, all nine Bears who were limited at Friday's practice are listed as “questionable.”

Besides the three starters, the other six are fullback Paul Lasike (wrist), wide receivers Josh Bellamy (shoulder) and Deonte Thompson (knee, ankle), defensive end Cornelius Washington, safety Deon Bush (hamstring) and cornerback Bryce Callahan (groin).

Questionable means there's a 50-50 chance of playing. The only other designations this year are “doubtful” (a 25 percent chance of playing) and “out.”

Youth is served:

The Bears' safety tandem of Adrian Amos and Harold Jones-Quartey could be the NFL's youngest on opening day.

Both are 23, although Amos started all 16 games last year as a fifth-round pick out of Penn State, and Jones-Quartey started four times after being signed as an undrafted rookie out of Division-II Findlay (Ohio) University.

“He picked up where he left off last year,” defensive coordinator Vic Fangio. “He's very conscientious. Harold loves football. He wants to do as good as any player ever wanted to do — sometimes almost to a detriment where he'll paralyze himself.

“I think he's ready to take the next step. Now, the next step isn't the final step. He's got a lot of steps to take.”

Jones-Quartey had 1 of just 8 Bears interceptions last year but that part of his game still needs to catch up to his hard-hitting style as a run defender.

“He's a physical safety,” Fangio said. “He likes to hit. He likes to tackle, (but) he's going to have to become a good pass defender also.”

Leading the charge:

This year's captains, as voted by their teammates, are quarterback Jay Cutler and wide receiver Alshon Jeffery on offense, linebackers Pernell McPhee and Danny Trevathan on defense, and Sherrick McManis on special teams.

Coach John Fox will select a sixth captain each week.

McPhee is on the physically-unable-to-perform list and will miss at least the first six games and the first six weeks of practice, so he seems like an odd choice, but Fox doesn't thinks so.

“When we practiced against New England (during training camp), ‘Gronk' (tight end Rob Gronkowski) went out kind of early,” Fox said. “You don't see them, but they're in the there working.

“They're in the meetings. They're around the football team a lot more, just (not) on the practice field.”

• Follow Bob's Bears reports on Twitter @BobLeGere.

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