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The Bears offensive line has improved nicely without first round pick Gabe Carimi manning right tackle as expected.

It looks like they won’t get Carimi back anytime soon. The team announced Friday that Carimi will undergo an arthroscopic debridement procedure. Carimi dislocated his knee in Week Two.

It’s fair to wonder at this point when the “Bear Jew” will return this season, if he returns at all.http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2011/11/11/bears-first-rounder-carimi-goes-under-the-knife/

Arthroscopic debridement
(dictionary definition)

'Debridement' is a rather broad term, encompassing sucking up loose fronds of synovium (joint lining), meniscus or cruciate ligament and sucking out any joint debris. Arthroscopic debridement means that this is done using keyhole surgery, where a thin 'scope' is pushed into the joint (arthro=joint) to visualise the structures.

It may be a trivial part of the surgical procedure or, if there is florid synovitis (joint lining inflammation), it may be extensive.

Excessive growth of irritated synovium leads it to multiply its surface area by buckling into fronds, and the fronds may become inflamed and pour destructive enzymes into the joint space, leading to joint swelling and joint surface destruction. 'Hoovering' away this excessive material, and washing out any debris (lavage), frequently settles down an irritable knee.

A ragged meniscus or cruciate ligament may also be debrided.

Not good news, but Reading up on the procedure, it really does seem minor. I wonder if surgery earlier was an option?

Why not do this earlier? UGH!

I hope he can come back at some point this season and this doesn't affect him going forward. I don't want a Columbo part 2 on our hands. I'm fine waiting until this is 100% healed and feel better about Louis at RT with the way he has been playing at least.

Sounds like this is a surgery that is performed if swelling and irritation doesn't go down or gets worse. And I think that the performance of the offensive line right now might have something to do with why this is being done now. Maybe the staff wanted to see if he could just tough it out in case the line started sucking, but now that they're playing well they encouraged him to get the surgery.

ChronicKerr wrote:Why not do this earlier?

My thoughts exactly.

Just heard it during Lovie Smith's press conference. Seems like he's out for an extended period

CLTV reporting its season ending surgery. Too bad, he had really been playing well at LG, especially pulling on runs to the right. IMO, LG is not a question for next year.

Right when we start getting some cohesion & solid play from our O-Line.

Awesome.

I'm looking at this as a way to take a good long look at Ed Wiilliams at LG. (because looking at it any other way is depressing).

Twice was as high on Ed Williams last year as he was on Lance Louis. Louis is showing signs that Tice was definitely right. If EW can step in and play well (as its said he did against the Lions), we could have a pretty strong line moving forward. Twice said Carimi was the best lineman we had when he went down. When he's back, we can move Louis back to RG and then let Spencer and EW go at it for the LG spot.

Overall, the line has played very well the last 6 games, only giving up 9 sacks against some of the best pass rushers in the NFC. The Bears are 5-1 in those games. That sack pace would have put them at 24 for a season compared to 56 sacks last season. I expect our sack numbers to remain low with this next stretch of 5 games - only the Raiders and Denver have a decent pass rush and we don't really face any big time sack guys.

After last year who would of thought losing CW would be a huge blow to the oline. Surprisingly though CW was maybe our best lineman so far this year and it's disappointing to see that when he finally finds a home at LG and is producing he suffers possibly a season ending wrist injury.

I think going forward you have to plug in Edwin Williams and hope he can hold the fort until Carimi comes back. The last thing I want to see is Frank Ohmygod back in at RT b/c Edwin struggles and we had to move Louis back to RG and Spencer over to LG.

Like emperor said though we play some teams with not so great pass rushes coming so we should be okay there, but CW was big in the pulling run game and the Bears struggled after he got hurt to run the ball against the lions. Good win yesterday though and let's keep the momentum going.

It really is odd to think that Chris Williams going down is a huge disappointment. As far as Edwin Williams goes... Dude's initials spell ew. It doesn't look good. The running game just did not look good yesterday and it only looked worse once Williams was replaced by the other Williams.

Chris Williams going down is not a big deal. The big deal is the Bears already have the worst O-Line in football and have little depth behind those average to bad O-Linemen.

SportsWorld wrote:Chris Williams going down is not a big deal. The big deal is the Bears already have the worst O-Line in football and have little depth behind those average to bad O-Linemen.

Have you watched a single game in the past month and a half?

Maybe Edwin can channel some of that Williams power from Chris and hold down the fort, or even excel.

Cliff Levingston is less worried about this than when Carimi comes back. Once Carimi comes back, that potentially changes 3 positions on an otherwise cohesive line.

Cliff Levingston wrote:Cliff Levingston is less worried about this than when Carimi comes back. Once Carimi comes back, that potentially changes 3 positions on an otherwise cohesive line.

Agreed. Hopefully Carimi is back in about 3wks (anyone have an update on the time he's expected to miss?) and if that happens it gives the oline 4wks to try and regain the chemistry they just started to show. I assume when he comes back the oline becomes webb spencer garza louis carimi.

The scary thing is if another injury happens before Carimi returns there is zero depth. Sadly, I'd actually prefer the bears activate Levi Horn off the PS if a tackle goes down b/c Omiyale is just turrrible. If an interior lineman goes down the bears have no backups only have a rookie (Ricky Henry) and a 2nd year player (Reggie Stephans) on their practice squad.

Almost forgot...Webb is fighting through multiple nagging injuries so hopefully he can stay healthy the rest of the way.

Everything I've read and heard reported is saying it's a minor procedure, just a cleaning out of the knee. Basically removing "debris" from the knee to alleviate pain (I'm no doctor tho).

I agree with heir jordan. Timing couldn't of been worse though, I also think the bears went ahead with the surgery because the oline was playing well and they probably thought they could buy a few weeks for Carimi to get healthy because the knee wasn't responding well in practice.

I've had that done to my elbow. It's pretty minor. I was playing volleyball again in a month. The thing is, having it done is a very strong indication of a chronic, permanent issue with swelling and joint inflammation. I had it three years ago and after about 6 months the pain and swelling came back. It's nothing serious other than it swells up and gets real sore after physical activity. He'll have to deal with that, I'm sure he can.

Just when the O-Line starts playing decent - Ugh. We need Carimi back in hurry this line is getting real thin - I hope the 3 week time frame is correct. They will need a couple of weeks together before the playoffs. I like EW better as a back up than a starter, hopefully he can be pleasant surprise like Chris was. Its too bad about Chris it seemed like he was finally found his spot, and we are going to miss his play going forward.

mikecwright Michael C. Wright

Source expects Bears to move OL Levi Horn to active roster from practice squad sometime this week. We'll see.

I assume the Bears liked Horn more then the two lineman they worked out earlier this week. Or more likely they were looking for a practice squad replacement for him. Horn's a big guy like 6'7 320 I think and from what I remember he had a decent preseason.

I've said it before but Omiyale needs to go and hopefully Horn performs well if called upon and can replace him as that swing tackle.

The #Bears have placed Gabe Carimi on IR.

http://twitter.com/ChicagoBearscom/stat ... 7184808962

Carimi underwent an arthroscopic debridement procedure last week and won't be able to recover in time to play this season, it's quite a blow to the Bears who recently lost OL Chris Williams aswell.