- Brad Biggs at the Chicago Tribune answers your questions:
“Are you surprised by any of the roster moves they made or players they kept? — @jtbcubs
I don’t think anything the Bears did in establishing an initial 53-man roster Tuesday was a surprise, and I’ll get into some specific questions folks submitted below. I had projected that **Velus Jones** would be waived, but the Bears kept the 2022 third-round draft pick. That probably signals they have plans for him beyond returning kickoffs and other areas on special teams.”
“Perhaps Jones can have more success than he did the previous two seasons. It’s difficult to give up on a Day 2 draft pick, especially one with Jones’ combination of speed and strength.”
I hope I have to eat these words, but if Jones had anything to give on the field, he would have shown it by now. His value is as a kick returner and he couldn’t even do that. The very first kickoff of the pre-season he bobbled it. Statistically he’s not bad in this capacity but can you think of a single kickoff return last year where you thought, “Wow. That guys is a difference maker.”?
He’ll probably be a better running back than he was a wide receiver but, even if he develops, he’ll be nothing more than what amounts to a gadget guy for a long time yet.
- Biggs continues:
“Will the Bears try to sign a veteran quarterback to help with development? — @dillonbirch__
“When the team did not re-sign **Brett Rypien** to the practice squad, my hunch was he was hunting an opportunity on a 53-man roster elsewhere. That happened when the Minnesota Vikings signed Rypien on Thursday. Plan B for the Bears was adding undrafted rookie **Austin Reed** to the practice squad. I’m not surprised the Bears opted for Reed instead of a player with more experience.
Nor am I. But when Reed and Rypien were both released my first thought was that the Bears would try to find a better option on the street for this spot.
Don’t get me wrong. I like Reed fine. But I don’t see the upside that I would like to in a developmental quarterback. But perhaps the Bears were impressed with how he played in the preseason games despite getting almost no snaps in practice.
- Biggs also has a thought about the status of fullback Khari Blasingame:
“Unless I missed one, the last fullback (at least a dedicated fullback for the full season) **Shane Waldron** worked with was **Heath Evans** in 2008 with the New England Patriots.
Waldron was an offensive quality control assistant that season — his first in the league — and was promoted to tight ends coach the next year.
It’s something I have been wondering about since **Matt Eberflus** hired him because Waldron didn’t have a fullback in his offense the past three seasons as the Seattle Seahawks coordinator. Before that, he worked for the Los Angeles Rams under **Sean McVay**, who went away from having a fullback on his roster. When McVay and Waldron were assistants for Washington in 2016 on **Jay Gruden**’s staff, there wasn’t a fullback (I’m not counting the time Waldron spent between stints when he was in the United Football League, at UMass and spent one season at the prep level.).
Sixteen years after Evans and Waldron were together in New England, will there be a fullback for the Bears offense?
That question will be answered as we move toward Tuesday’s roster cuts. I think there is a decent chance Khari Blasingame is on the team — a projected 53-man roster is below — but there are myriad factors to consider.”
I was glad to see that Blasingame was, indeed, signed to the practice squad with the evident idea of elevating him on game day this week.
One thing I’ll say for certain. Last year under Luke Getsy the running game always looked better when blasting game was in the game. I always thought Getsy was underrated when it came to designing run plays to begin with. And good things seemed to happen when he had a fullback on the field. I was often left to wish he had used Blasingame a bit more often.