The Chicago Bears can’t afford to stop churning the bottom of their roster. This is a typical part of the NFL season. Players come. They go. They get injured and replacements are needed. It’s a fact of life in football. The teams that handle it the best are usually the ones playing deep into January. To their credit, the Bears have usually been solid in this department. A credit to GM Ryan Pace despite his recent presence on the hot seat.
This week in particular has been a challenging one for them. They were faced with two problematic roster issues. The first being that key reserve running back Lamar Miller was plucked from the practice squad by the Washington Football Team. This makes the depth behind David Montgomery quite a bit precarious. The other issue cropped up after the win over Houston in which starting cornerback Jaylon Johnson suffered a shoulder injury.
Thus far the rookie has missed every practice this week.
He’s considered questionable for the game. Head coach Matt Nagy did express optimism he might be able to play, but there is a chance he may not. That means the Bears could end up making a counter move on their roster at cornerback. With these two issues to tackle, Chicago has conducted a series of tryouts over the past couple of days with five total players.
This included four running backs including Spencer Ware, Rod Smith, Darius Jackson, and Wes Hills. The fifth was cornerback Teez Tabor, a former 2nd round pick of the Detroit Lions back in 2017.
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Today’s tryout/visit list. pic.twitter.com/N8muYw2uuq
— Albert Breer (@AlbertBreer) December 17, 2020
#Bears list CB Teez Tabor as coming in for an upcoming tryout. He was a 2017 2nd round pick of the #Lions.
— Brad Biggs (@BradBiggs) December 18, 2020
Chicago Bears may make the moves next week
At this point, it’s too late for any of those names to help the Bears on Sunday against the Minnesota Vikings. This due to the COVID-19 testing protocols. So if a signing is made, it will be with eyes on the game next week in Jacksonville. That aside, the team certainly collected an array of interesting names.
Spencer Ware is somebody Nagy and the coaching staff should know well. The two worked together in Kansas City for a few years where the running back proved himself to be a reliable if unremarkable workhorse. Somebody who could step up in a pinch and still produce. Tabor? People are still trying to figure out what went wrong with him.
He looked like a genuine future NFL starter at Florida.
Between 2015 and 2016, he collected seven interceptions. He was 6’0 and 200 lbs. While not freakishly athletic, he has enough traits to make one think he could handle the NFL. Then when he arrived he became a favorite target for quarterbacks almost from the start. He didn’t end up lasting long in Detroit and failed to crack a roster since. So one shouldn’t expect him to be anything special. Purely depth on the practice squad.
That is unless Chuck Pagano can somehow unlock some of that latent potential he showed in college. Either way, if the Chicago Bears end up signing any of them it should happen by the start of next week at the latest.