Bears safety Quintin Demps suffered a broken arm in Sunday’s win against the Steelers and will be sidelined indefinitely, Chicago announced today. Head coach John Fox indicated the club is still deciding whether to place Demps on injured reserve.
“The good news is we’ve got guys that have been with us [to replace Demps],” Fox said. “There are guys that are familiar with what we’re doing. That was the advantage of some of the injuries and play time we got a year ago. We feel good about guys stepping in. Obviously we don’t want to see anybody get hurt or injured, but those other guys are worthy.”
Third-year pro Adrian Amos will be asked to step in at safety in the absence of Amos, and as Fox alludes to, Amos offers plenty of experience. A fifth-round pick in 2015, Amos started 30 games over his first two seasons in the NFL, and graded as the league’s No. 26 safety last year, per Pro Football Focus. Amos will now start next to rookie defensive back Eddie Jackson, while Deon Bush and DeAndre Houston-Carson will serve as Chicago’s backups at safety.
If the Bears do placed Demps on injured reserve, he’d be forced to miss at least eight games before returning, meaning he wouldn’t be available until nearly December. While that’s not ideal, Chicago likely doesn’t want to carry an unplayable Demps on its roster for the month-plus it will take him to recover.
Demps, 32, inked a three-year, $13.5MM deal that included $4.5MM in the spring after spending the past two seasons with the Texans. Through an admittedly small sample of only two-plus games, PFF had ranked Demps as just the 70th-best safety among 82 qualifiers.