A big man with a bad back is a terrible combination. It’s even worse when that dude is expected to be the Chicago Bears’ starting left tackle, is a rookie who’s never played a snap in the NFL, and who has yet to line up with his teammates because of a lingering back injury that’s created questions about his immediate future.

“Honestly, I don’t know,””Nagy said of when Jenkins will return to the field. “All I can say is I feel like the arrow is … every day it’s getting a little bit better. It’s not going the other way. So we’ve just got to be smart.”

That weird feeling you’re getting in your gut isn’t from last night’s dinner. Instead, it’s the trauma and anxiety from past early-round picks whose Bears careers began with concerning injuries and were derailed before ever getting started.

Curtis Enis? Kevin White? Gabe Carimi? Marco Colombo?  The list is longer than just these players, but the last two — Carimi and Colombo — were each highly-touted offensive tackle prospects who never materialized because of unfortunate injury-plagued tenures in Chicago.

We’re not there yet with Jenkins, but this just doesn’t feel right.

“When it is time, (head trainer Andre Tucker is) gonna come to me and say, ‘Hey, he’s practicing today.’ Or, ‘He’s going out and he’s doing individual, and then he’s going to do 5-10 reps here,’ and we’ll slowly get him in,” Nagy said. “And then we’ve got to see how he’s feeling. The sooner the better, for sure. I just can’t predict injuries.”