Collarbone Injury Lands Carlson On Injured Reserve
Stephen Carlson’s season may be over before it ever really got started.
Signed to the Chicago Bears’ active roster from the practice squad last Tuesday, Carlson was placed on injured reserve Saturday.
Several media outlets reported that Carlson suffered a serious collarbone injury during Thursday’s practice.
A member of the practice squad for Chicago’s first three games this season, Carlson was fourth on the tight end depth chart behind Cole Kmet, Gerald Everett and Marcedes Lewis after being activated last week. The Bears are now 2-2 and are coming off a 24-18 win over the Los Angeles Rams on Sunday.
NFL teams can designate up to eight players to return to the active roster from the injured reserve after four weeks so the earliest Carlson could return to the Bears’ active roster would be Week 9 against the Arizona Cardinals on Nov. 3.
A 2015 graduate of Jamestown High School and a 2019 graduate of Princeton University, Carlson has 26 games of playing experience under his belt, including seven starts with Cleveland from 2019-20. He played one regular-season game for the Bears in 2023, but made no catches and registered one special teams snap.