The Chicago Bears are moving closer to finalizing their 53-man roster for the regular season, as several players were informed on Monday that they would not be part of the franchise moving forward.
With the league-wide mandate to trim rosters down to 53 players set for Tuesday afternoon, position battles up and down the roster are coming to a close. The running back room, in particular, is one of the areas where multiple players were informed of their release on Monday.
As shared by Kevin Fishbain of The Athletic, the Bears officially announced a series of cuts on Monday afternoon, and running back Royce Freeman was one of the veterans given his pink slip after the team had just acquired him at the end of training camp.
Bears roster moves pic.twitter.com/hNJwLfR6SQ
— Kevin Fishbain (@kfishbain) August 25, 2025
Bears Cut RB Royce Freeman After Signing Him Just 5 Days Ago
With nearly 1,800 rushing yards in his career, Freeman fit the bill for the type of veteran that some fans were clamoring for throughout training camp. Unfortunately, his play on the field did not match the theoretical fit he would have had, as Chicago had cut him loose just five days after adding him to the roster.
Freeman only saw one game of action during the preseason for the Bears, and he had a decent performance with 22 rushing yards on five carries. His longest rush of the game came for nine yards, though, so nearly half of his production came off of that single play.
With Freeman no longer a threat to make the final roster, Chicago seems prepared to enter Week 1 with an RB room led by D'Andre Swift with Roschon Johnson, Kyle Monangai, and, potentially, Travis Homer filling out the depth chart behind him.
What Freeman does from here is anyone's guess. The 29-year-old has not recorded a carry in a regular-season game since the 2023 campaign, when he was a member of the Los Angeles Rams. While it is never smart to speak in absolutes when it comes to an athlete's career, we could be seeing the beginning of the end for the former Oregon Ducks standout play out in real-time.