Bears defensive tackle Tommie Harris took in another practice with helmet in hand Monday, but perhaps it shouldn’t come as a surprise. Harris revealed he had arthroscopic knee surgery five months ago.
Harris said the surgery was to remove scar tissue and examine the joint. He went on to say that he sat out Monday’s practice due to a sore hamstring, although coach Lovie Smith attributed Harris’ absence to knee soreness.
“This is just rest,” Harris said. “I had surgery [in] March, so I didn’t get a chance to do a lot of the stuff that the teammates were doing. So they’re far ahead of me. I’m really just starting to catch up.”
He admitted to being a tad frustrated by not being able to do more on-field work. Harris has been limited in practices since suffering a Grade II MCL tear in his left knee during Week 3 of the 2007 campaign. He played through the injury without missing any games that season, then was rewarded with a four-year, $40 million contract extension.
Harris had his knee scoped by famed orthopedic surgeon James Andrews before the ’08 season. His latest surgery was not performed by Andrews.
Smith had said on Saturday he anticipated Harris practicing on Monday. But he said he would not term what is happening to Harris as a setback.
“You go through training camp, soreness sinks in,” Smith said. “That’s all that’s happened. It’s not like you’ve seen Tommie go down with an injury or anything like that. You practice this long as hard as the defensive line is going, these things happen.”
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Jay talking
A day-to-day look at Jay Cutler’s first Bears training camp.
Shallow Jay: Screens, play-actions and dump-offs were the order of the day. Cutler completed 16-of-26 throws in practice, many of them short ones. In 7-on-7 drills, he went 6-of-12. In 11-on-11, he went 10-of-14. The highlight of the day was a pass to Devin Aromashodu, who got work with the first string.
In the zone: Cutler logged some time operating the red-zone and goal-line offenses and had mixed results. In 7-on-7, he completed 3-of-6 attempts. In team drills he overthrew an open Greg Olsen.
