Bears continue monitoring Kyle Long’s right sore ankle, say he’ll start Monday

Kyle Long missed his second consecutive practice with lingering soreness in his right ankle Friday, but Bears coach Matt Nagy said he expects the guard to start Monday night against the Seahawks.

The soreness won’t go away any time soon, though. For the second consecutive year, the Bears are monitoring Long’s ankle in the wake of a gruesome injury suffered in Week 9 of the 2016 season, when fullback Paul Lasike rolled into the back of his right leg. Long had surgery to repair ligament damage later that month.

“That’s the No. 1 thing that we need to understand, it is going to linger,” Nagy said. “So there’s that fine line of doing too much and knowing, ‘Hey, we need to get those reps in practice. It’s just too valuable to not practice.’ And he understands that.

“It comes down to trust, us trusting him and believing in where his pain’s at, and week-by-week we evaluate it.’’

Offensive coordinator Mark Helfrich said he would “expect that to be just kind of how it’s going to go for the rest of the year.”

Smith, Mack situations different

Like Nagy did one day earlier, defensive coordinator Vic Fangio hinted that first-round pick Roquan Smith would play more in Week 2. The rookie linebacker, who first felt hamstring tightness in his second practice after returning from a 29-day contract standoff, played eight snaps against the Packers.

“I have confidence in him, as far as being able to know what to do,” Fangio said. “Again, I think the thing that gets lost with all these players is he was here in all the OTAs and the minicamps. He did a good job learning our system in that time and then when he eventually got back.”

Fangio said the hamstring made Smith’s circumstances different than those of outside linebacker Khalil Mack, who played 42 snaps after missing all of training camp during his Raiders holdout.

“His situation was different than Khalil’s last week in that he was still nursing an injury,” Fangio said. “Khalil was just fighting newness and not playing. So we were a little cautious on that.”

RELATED

• Why the Bears will trust the process with QB Trubisky

• How will Nagy lead Bears back from crushing loss?

• Completing passes should be only thing on Trubisky’s to-do list

This and that

Tight end Trey Burton, who was recruited as a quarterback out of high school, sympathized with the grief Mitch Trubisky received this week. In the first quarter, Burton was wide open and waving his hands in the end zone, but Trubisky didn’t look in his direction.

“I wasn’t 1 or 2 — his first or second read — so I totally understand that he just didn’t see me,” he said.

— Safety DeAndre Houston-Carson (broken forearm) did not practice, and cornerback Bryce Callahan was limited again with what Nagy called a minor knee injury.

— The Seahawks signed linebacker Mychal Kendricks, who was cut by the Browns after being charged with insider trading. He pled guilty and will be sentenced in January. The team is looking for depth because linebackers K.J. Wright (knee) and Bobby Wagner (groin) didn’t practice Friday. Neither did guard D.J. Fluker (hamstring), receiver Doug Baldwin (knee), safety Delano Hill and cornerbacks Tre Flowers (hamstring) and Shaquill Griffin (thigh).