Bears now dealing with Williams gamble

According to first-round draft pick Chris Williams, who should know, for three or four years now he has had the herniated disc in his back that recently required surgery.

The Bears have insisted all along that it was not a pre-existing condition, but other teams red-flagged Williams on draft day because of the herniated disc, even though it never caused him to miss a game or even a practice in four years at Vanderbilt.

"I had a herniated disc before I got here. I guess that would be the red flag," Williams said. "We knew that. Everyone knew that. It just was a thing where most people it doesn't affect. It wasn't affecting me, so if nothing is broke, you don't fix it.

"Then something happened in practice that second day, the disc started moving, and that caused some problems."

Williams said the injury wasn't a problem in college.

"I didn't miss a practice or a game in college," he said. "Obviously, if it was something serious (I would have). Because if I could play with it in college, I sure as (heck) could play with it for money."

The injury has caused problems for the Bears, since their plan was to have Williams, the 14th overall selection, start the season as their offensive left tackle.

That plan has been scrapped since Williams won't be back until at least the middle of the season, and the Bears are left with a makeshift offensive line, including veteran backup John St. Clair at left tackle and Josh Beekman at left guard.

Beekman, who played in just one game as a rookie last season, has taken over for Terrence Metcalf, who has missed all three preseason games following arthroscopic knee surgery.

Metcalf is questionable for the final preseason game and probably would not start the regular-season opener if he doesn't get some preseason game action.

The day after Williams' Aug. 6 surgery, Bears general manager Jerry Angelo said: "What the doctors told me, 'This was a new injury.' He had injured his back approximately three years ago. He had no symptoms of any kind of herniation when that injury occurred. He had no missed time in the last three years, so it's a new injury."

To clear up the confusion, the Bears convened a hastily arranged conference call to say, in essence, that the injury was to the same disc but a different part of the disc and was not the result of the first injury.

Angelo said the Bears were aware of the injury but, unlike some other teams, did not take Williams off their first-round draft board.

"A goodly amount of players in the league play with this or worse," Angelo said. "He never had any of these symptoms in college, and that's what we went on. There was some risk, but it was more of a yellow flag than a red flag.

"He did have wear and tear, which all players have (including the other seven offensive linemen taken in the first round, according to Angelo). I would do it again based on the information I was given."

Williams - who began initial rehab work Thursday, the same day his stitches were removed - remains convinced that he will play in the second half of the season. So do the Bears, who say they still intend to keep him on the final 53-man roster that will be determined by Saturday.

"The surgery went as well as it could go," he said. "I'm pretty sure I am ahead of schedule in my rehab. I'm pretty confident in what's going on with that.

"(Head athletic trainer) Tim (Bream) said I'm ahead of schedule as far as my progress. I'm doing cardio - StairMaster and elliptical - and I'm doing some walking and lifting. I don't know when I will actually be able to run.

"I'm trying to get back in shape. It's fixed now. I feel great. I feel better than I did any day in training camp. It's just a matter of healing.

"The healing time is something that you can't speed up. But with that being said, I can do a lot of things as far as gaining my strength back. I can do upper body, I can do lower body, I can do just about everything working my core.

"I can do basically all the machine lifts. It gives me a chance to kind of get back to where I was when I got to training camp. By the time the injury heals up, the only other thing I will have to work on is getting my flexibility back."

Former Bears wide receiver Marcus Robinson had similar surgery and returned to play several more seasons, and cornerback Charles Tillman had the same procedure after Super Bowl XLI.