It’s been a long offseason for the Chicago Bears, but they’re finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.
With the final preseason game against the Kansas City Chiefs coming on Friday night, the Sept. 8 regular season opener against the Minnesota Vikings is right around the corner. That means that time is running out to make critical roster decisions and there are three players that will find themselves on the wrong end of the blade after the preseason finale.
WR Tyler Scott
Tyler Scott has been picked on as a potential cut candidate throughout the offseason but he hasn’t done much to validate a spot on the roster. A fourth-round pick in the 2023 draft, the Cincinnati product was projected to be a deep threat comparable to T.Y. Hilton. Yet his rookie year didn’t have many flashes as he mostly played on special teams and had 17 catches for 168 yards and a touchdown.
Scott appeared in 11 games last season, managing just one catch for five yards, and the writing was on the wall when Chicago signed Olamide Zaccheaus in free agency and added Luther Burden III in the second round of this year’s draft.
Scott has four catches for 62 yards and a touchdown this preseason but it may be too late to save his tenure in Chicago. With a different coaching staff in town, Scott is destined to be somewhere else when the season begins.
DT Zacch Pickens
Much like Scott, Pickens has been a rumored cut candidate for most of the offseason. A third-round pick in the 2023 draft, the South Carolina product had even less production than Scott did, making 20 total tackles with one tackle for loss and a half-sack in his rookie season. His sophomore season didn’t show much progress, either, as he appeared in nine games with 19 total tackles, one for loss and a sack.
From there, Pickens’s offseason looks a lot like Scott's. The Bears loaded up the defensive line by signing Grady Jarrett and Dayo Odenigbo in free agency and tripled down by selecting Shemar Turner in the second round of April’s draft.
No Bears interior defender has played more snaps than Pickens’s 85 this preseason. While he’s managed three pressures, it’s come on 52 pass-rushing snaps for a 5.7% pressure rate. Odds are the Bears are merely showcasing Pickens for a trade and could be forced to cut him at the end of the preseason.
CB Nashon Wright
A former second-round pick by the Dallas Cowboys, Wright arrived in Chicago for a last stand. Injuries limited him to just 272 snaps in his first three seasons and he wasn’t effective when he was on the field, posting PFF grades of 45.7, 51.8 and 60.1. The Cowboys cut bait in the final year of his rookie deal in a trade with the Minnesota Vikings but he didn’t see a defensive snap and managed just 15 snaps on special teams.
This doesn’t sound like a player that’s about to find himself but the Bears were willing to take a flier. While Jaylon Johnson has been out with a calf injury and Terrell Smith’s torn patellar tendon could open a door, Wright has done nothing with his opportunities, posting a 30.0 overall grade on 19 total snaps.
The lack of production means Wright is probably out the door and the Bears will be looking to bring somebody in to fill in the back end of the depth chart.