Bears coach Matt Nagy: ‘We love our running-back situation here right now’

Hours before Le’Veon Bell decided to join the Chiefs on Thursday, Bears coach Matt Nagy repeated that he’s content with his running backs room — even without pass catcher Tarik Cohen, who is out for the season.

“I just know how we feel and how I feel, and we love our running-back situation here right now,” he said. “So, again, I think that Le’Veon is a good football player and a good running back, and [I’m] leaving that up to [general manager] Ryan [Pace]. But we’re just really happy with our situation here, and we feel like we have guys. . . . Catching the ball and doing things, we have guys that can do that, and run the ball between the tackles.”

Nagy’s mentors — Chiefs coach Andy Reid and general manager Brett Veach — will carve out a spot for Bell in an offense similar to the one the Bears run.

The Jets cut Bell on Wednesday after he voiced his displeasure with his playing time and coach Adam Gase. Bell starred for the Steelers for five seasons before infamously sitting out the 2018 season because of a contract dispute. The Jets guaranteed him $27 million just last year.

Kick returner/running back/wide receiver Cordarrelle Patterson, who playfully sends social-media messages to Bears free-agent targets, tweeted this week that he was out of the recruiting business.

“I’m giving up being the GM,” he joked Thursday. “I’m leaving that to somebody else.”

Glass act

Kicker Eddy Pineiro is “still part of our plans” despite being on injured reserve with a groin problem, special-teams coordinator Chris Tabor said. Still, it appears Pineiro isn’t close to returning, as the Bears signed veteran Kai Forbath to the practice squad last week.

Tabor said Forbath will be insurance in case starter Cairo Santos gets hurt — or worse.

“I mean, obviously, there’s a lot of COVID issues going around right now,” Tabor said. “At that position, if someone would wake up in the morning with COVID, we’ve been in a lot of tight games, and you don’t have a guy that can go out and make a field goal. That’s concerning.

“Kai is a guy that’s obviously been in this league a long time. He’s really a break-glass-in-case-of-emergency [signing].”

Forbath has made 131 of 151 kicks in 10 seasons. He kicked in three games with the Cowboys and two with the Patriots last year.

This and that

Deon Bush remained out with a hamstring injury, but fellow safety Sherrick McManis practiced in full Thursday after dealing with a similar problem. Defensive lineman Brent Urban was limited with a knee injury.

† For the fifth consecutive day, no Bear tested positive for the coronavirus. On Saturday, practice-squad offensive lineman Badara Traore became the first Bear to test positive during the regular season.

“We feel like we’re going above and beyond,” Nagy said. “We hope our players feel that from us. And I think when you have a positive test result with [Traore], it doesn’t turn into a lot more — so far, knock on wood. And that’s a credit to how we’re doing things — and the players.’’