Chicago Bears: Early training camp 53-man roster projection

Linebackers and Secondary

Now, we’ve come to the monsters. Let’s begin with the linebackers.

Linebackers: Leonard Floyd, Danny Trevathan, Roquan Smith, Khalil Mack, Nick Kwiatkoski, Joel Iyiegbuniwe, Aaron Lynch, Isaiah Irving, Mathieu Betts

Beyond the starters, I obviously like Lynch sticking around because of his experience and how well he played last year within the rotation. Iggy brings a lot to special teams and proved his value there as a rookie. I think Irving has continued to remain at Halas Hall because he truly is a good player, so I like him making the team as well. Finally, the Canadian rookie makes the squad as Betts finds a spot.

Cornerbacks: Kyle Fuller, Prince Amukamara, Buster Skrine, Duke Shelley, Kevin Toliver, Stephen Denmark

Beyond the starting two and Skrine at nickel, obviously the Bears will keep Shelley after investing a fifth-rounder in him this year. Toliver showed enough last year to hang around and should be even better as a sophomore.

The kicker here is that I have Sherrick McManis being cut and the seventh-rounder, Denmark, holding onto a spot due to his athleticism and versatility in the secondary. He may even be better at safety when all is said and done.

Safeties: Ha Ha Clinton-Dix, Eddie Jackson, Deon Bush, DeAndre Houston-Carson

The same top-four safeties return from a year ago, minus Adrian Amos and inserting Clinton-Dix into his place. There won’t be any drop-off in terms of depth here either as both Bush and Houston-Carson have been around long enough as backups.