It’s not the best time to be a professional athlete. Especially if you aren’t a star. Normally an NFL roster goes into training camp reasonably warmed up after minicamps and OTAs. COVID-19 made that impossible. Now there won’t be a preseason, so several Chicago Bears have watched their opportunities to make the roster drastically diminish. Sadly it’s about to get even worse for some of them.
Ian Rapoport reported that the NFL Players Association conducted a phone call with players. The major topic of discussion was a particularly brutal one. Rather than the usual 90-man capacity teams go to camp with, the ceiling will be reduced to 80. This means upwards of 320 men are likely to see themselves released in the next seven days before camp is scheduled to begin on July 28th.
The reasoning behind this move is mostly related to medical concerns. A roster of 80 players is easier to manage in terms of social distancing than 90. Not to mention teams being able to start saving money from the inevitable financial windfall of minimal fan attendance for games this year. It’s easy to understand, but also a reminder of how cold this business can be.
Which Chicago Bears could end up getting the ax?
GM Ryan Pace has the job of making these decisions in the next several days. He’ll have to release 10 players before the deadline. Who will it be? Based on the situation facing the league, most experts believe undrafted free agents will largely get the shaft. Without OTAs or preseason to prove themselves and the danger of losing players to COVID infection, teams are expected to lean more towards veterans on the back end of their roster.
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With 11 undrafted players on their roster, it’s possible the Bears may have to end up cutting all but one of them. That is unless there are some other names scattered across the depth chart who are more luxuries than necessities. Could Tyler Bray be sacrificed? Mitch Trubisky and Nick Foles will need every possible snap in practice with the preseason gone.
It will be interesting to see which direction they go.
