Windy City Gridiron
As we have done the last few years, shortly after the NFL Draft, we project the Chicago Bears’ 53-man roster. If you want to see this year’s attempt, you can check it out here.
But with the Bears’ final cut-down day being less than a week away, let’s take another attempt at the 53-man roster. Many of the choices from May remain, but there’s certainly going to be some changes.
It seems pretty straightforward here. Perhaps Keenum can unseat Bagent as QB2, but Bagent had a strong performance against the Buffalo Bills, and I think this room is locked and Bagent is almost certainly QB2. I would expect Austin Reed to remain on the practice squad.
This is another room that seems pretty set. Roschon Johnson has struggled to get on the field, and nobody seems to have a straight answer as to what his situation is. Could Johnson end up on IR to start the season? Is his job safe, or could he end up being released?
If Johnson is released, I know many Bears fans would point to Ian Wheeler to take his spot. Wheeler has looked good in the preseason, but I haven’t seen anything elite from Wheeler playing against Miami and Buffalo’s 3s to make me think he can translate to a key contributor on Sundays. I think Wheeler spends another season on the practice squad, and the Bears may look to bring in a veteran into the mix here, depending on who is available.
This room is loaded. The Bears have four players who are good enough to be key contributors on the offense on Sundays, and Duvernay will be a nice addition on special teams as a return man. Tyler Scott had a couple of nice catches against Buffalo, but his botched kick return to start the game is exactly why Scott just can’t be on this roster anymore- he isn’t good enough to be an offense-only contributor, and he just is not a good special teams player.
I think the Bears have multiple players they could consider on the practice squad from this group, including Samori Toure, Miles Boykin, Maurice Alexander, Jahade Walker, and JP Richardson. I could see the Bears keeping as many as three from this room on the practice squad.
This is another room that feels pretty straightforward to me. There is a possibility being the Bears will utilize a lot of 12 personnel, that the Bears may keep a fourth tight end here, but I think they just keep the three, and if Kmet or Loveland gets dinged up, the Bears will just shift to 11 personnel and drop the heavy usage of 12.
If someone like Joel Wilson had a dominant preseason, perhaps...
