Bears’ Brisker, in protocol since Oct. 7, put on IR

LAKE FOREST, Ill. — The Chicago Bears placed safety Jaquan Brisker on injured reserve Thursday.

Brisker, 25, has been in the NFL’s concussion protocol since Oct. 7 after he sustained an injury while forcing a turnover in a 36-10 win over Carolina in Week 5. The safety reported concussion-like symptoms one day after the Panthers game and did not travel with the Bears to play in London.

Brisker has missed four straight games and had already been ruled out for the Bears’ Week 11 matchup with the Green Bay Packers. In back-to-back weeks, coach Matt Eberflus has said on the Wednesday before Chicago’s next game that Brisker will not play.

“He’s still going through the concussion protocol there and working through with the trainers,” Eberflus said. “We’ll see where that goes in terms of week-to-week.”

On Nov. 1, Eberflus said that Brisker was still experiencing concussion symptoms that prohibited him from passing through the league’s five-step concussion protocol.

“He’s made progress,” Eberflus said. “He’s got into the meetings, he’s got into the walk-through and got into those things and then has those symptoms. Again, it’s always gonna be about his safety and his health and where he is.”

Brisker will miss Chicago’s next four games — against the Packers, Minnesota Vikings, Detroit Lions and San Francisco 49ers — before being eligible to return ahead of Week 15.

This is Brisker’s third diagnosed concussion over the past three seasons. He missed two games as a rookie after sustaining a concussion in Atlanta in November 2022. Against the Atlanta Falcons, Brisker was evaluated for a head injury by medical staffers twice but was allowed to return to the game on both occasions.

In a 30-12 win over the Las Vegas Raiders on Oct. 22, 2023, Brisker was evaluated for a concussion after being involved in a collision on a 2-point conversion attempt but played the rest of the game. The following week, as the Bears prepared to face the Los Angeles Chargers, Brisker was ruled out ahead of time with what the team described as an “illness,” which was later diagnosed as a concussion. The safety missed two games last season, against the Chargers and the New Orleans Saints.

Brisker has started all 35 games he has appeared in since being drafted in the second round in 2022.