Breaking down the Chicago Bears 53-man roster for the 2017 season

Breaking down the Chicago Bears 53-man roster for the 2017 season.

The Chicago Bears had until 3 PM CT on Saturday to trim their roster from 90 to 53 players. Per the Chicago Bears official website, the roster stands as follows:

Quarterbacks (3): Mike Glennon, Mark Sanchez and Mitchell Trubisky
Running backs (4): Tarik Cohen, Benny Cunningham, Jordan Howard and Jeremy Langford
Fullbacks (1): Michael Burton
Receivers (5): Josh Bellamy, Deonte Thompson, Markus Wheaton, Kevin White and Kendall Wright
Tight ends (5): Ben Braunecker, Daniel Brown, Zach Miller, Adam Shaheen and Dion Sims
Offensive linemen (8): Tom Compton, Hroniss Grasu, Charles Leno, Kyle Long, Bobby Massie, Josh Sitton, Bradley Sowell and Cody Whitehair
Defensive linemen (5): Jonathan Bullard, Eddie Goldman, Roy Robertson-Harris, Akiem Hicks and Mitch Unrein
Linebackers (8): Sam Acho, Leonard Floyd, Jerrell Freeman, Christian Jones, Nick Kwiatkoski, Pernell McPhee, Danny Trevathan and Willie Young
Defensive backs (11): Adrian Amos, Prince Amukamara, Deon Bush, Bryce Callahan, Marcus Cooper, Quintin Demps, Kyle Fuller, Deiondre’ Hall, Eddie Jackson, Cre’Von LeBlanc and Sherrick McManis
Specialists (3): Connor Barth, Pat O’Donnell and Jeff Overbaugh.

Quarterbacks

I was a little surprised that general manager Ryan Pace opted to keep Sanchez over Connor Shaw. I assume that he values Sanchez’s experience in the quarterback room. Sanchez can be a strong voice for Mitch Trubisky, just like he was for Dak Prescott with the Dallas Cowboys last season.

Running backs

With Carey getting placed on injured reserve, that opened the door for some of the other running backs on the roster. I thought that Pace may decide to only carry three running backs, with the decision being between Langford and Cunningham. However, the both players made the Chicago Bears 53-man roster. Josh Rounds is a strong practice squad candidate.

Wide receivers

Yikes. I am not very excited to see Thompson and Bellamy playing much of the game on offense. In a perfect world, they would mostly be used on special teams. White is injury prone, and Wheaton is currently recovering from a broken finger. If either of them sustains an injury in the regular season, then they are going to have even bigger roles, which is frightening.

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After cutting Victor Cruz, I hope Pace claims a wide receiver that was cut by another team. Also, I was surprised that Gentry did not make the team over Bellamy. I understand that Bellamy provides special teams value, but Gentry can learn better techniques, while he provides better wide receiver play than Bellamy. In other news, Daniel Braverman is a candidate to return to the practice squad, after he was waived.

Tight ends

Wow, the Chicago Bears have five tight ends on the 53-man roster! I have never seen such a thing. I assume Pace believes that Braunecker would not have made it past waivers, so he likely kept him for that reason alone. This move also tells me how much this team intends to run the football this season. I expect a lot of two tight end sets this season, especially after wide receiver Cameron Meredith‘s season-ending injury.

Offensive linemen

There are no major surprises here. I believe that Compton is safe on this team, but Sowell’s spot is likely up in the air, in my opinion. If Pace believes another team’s cut player is better than Sowell, then he should pull the trigger.

Defensive linemen

I was extremely surprised that Jaye Howard was cut from the team. I think that he is a better player than Unrein, not to mention he is younger than Unrein.

I thought Howard was impressive this preseason. He even started the game against the Arizona Cardinals and Tennessee Titans. How did he drop this far? To me, he should be on the 53-man roster.

Linebackers

Christian Jones won the battle between him, John Timu and Jonathan Anderson, as expected. Dan Skuta was cut today, I figured he would make the team, so it was surprising to see that Pace terminated his contract. Arguably the biggest story of the day was the news about McPhee.

Will McPhee be able to play in week 1? Well, that remains to be seen, but it is promising that one of the Chicago Bears’ emotional leaders will play sooner rather than later.

Defensive backs

There are no major surprises in the secondary. It is good to hear that Hall’s hamstring injury against the Cleveland Browns was not serious. Chris Prosinski was placed on injured reserve, which certainly made the decision between Prosinski, Bush and Hall much easier. Also, Harold Jones-Quartey, who has started the past two seasons, was cut from the team.

Next: Waiver wire targets for Bears after roster cuts

Specialists

Overbaugh is replacing long-snapper Patrick Scales, who was placed on injured reserve. O’Donnell has looked very good in preseason and is deserving of his spot on the roster. Lastly, Connor Barth beat out Roberto Aguayo at kicker, which does not surprise me at all considering Aguayo’s first field goal attempt as a Chicago Bear was a miss.