Chicago Bears Training Camp: 5 position battles heating up

Sherrick McManis could be in danger

My absolute favorite pickup following the draft was rookie free agent Kevin Toliver. Coming out of LSU, Toliver was set to be picked between the fourth and sixth rounds in this year’s draft — yet he went undrafted.

No worries for Toliver, because he knew his story was far from over. The Bears picked him up and, so far, he has had some nice moments in training camp. He began training camp with a pair of interceptions in his first practice, and followed it up with another pick the very next day.

Fortunately for Toliver, he made these plays in front of quite the crowd in attendance to cheer him on — this was definitely a fun scene to see.

Fast forward to the release of this unofficial depth chart and it appears his hard work is already paying off. The success of Toliver is, of course, going to lead to the dismay of at least one or two other players.

The guy who is in the most hot water at the moment is Sherrick McManis, who is behind Cre’von LeBlanc and Toliver backing up Prince Amukamara. Technically, Bryce Callahan is in there as well, but he’s the starting nickel.

McManis has spent his last six seasons with the Bears and has been more of a force on special teams. But, special teams is exactly where players like Toliver are going to make a name for themselves during the regular season — assuming he doesn’t leapfrog both LeBlanc and Callahan.

As of right now, it appears McManis is in serious danger of missing the final 53-man roster cut. We’ll keep our eyes on this battle as camp chugs along.