The Chicago Bears Podcast
Bears Roster Cuts Revealed: Takeaways, Surprises & What's Next w/Courtney Cronin
It's the final roster cut down day across the NFL, and The Chicago Bears Podcast with Pat The Designer and ESPN's Courtney Cronin has you covered! Brought to you by The Hard Rock Casino Northern Indiana, Pat and Courtney break down every move made by Ryan Poles and the Chicago Bears, including Velus Jones Jr. securing his spot as a WR. Courtney shares inside info on Khari Blasingame and why Bears fans shouldn't count him out just yet. They also dive into what these roster decisions reveal about Matt Eberflus and Ryan Poles' strategy for the team. Finally, Pat and Courtney discuss what's next for the roster and take a look ahead at the depth chart. Join us for the latest Bears updates and analysis as we gear up for the season! #ChicagoBears #RosterCuts #VelusJonesJr #KhariBlasingame #NFL #BearsNation #RyanPoles #MattEberflus #BearsPodcast #FootballNews
- Broadcast on:
- 28 Aug 2024
- Audio Format:
- other
[MUSIC] >> Merda and Bears fans, another edition of the Chicago Bears Podcast, coming your way. Pat the designer, if you hear some water in the background, it's because you got to get away. You know what I'm saying? Sometimes you got to go to away. We got a little time off, but not enough time off to not talk about cut down day. Pat the designer, Courtney Cronin, in the building, and Courtney, on another flight, the hardest work you can do in sports talk. Courtney, what's going on? >> Not much, whoever's going to be hearing this podcast is going to be hearing it live in the United Club at Newark Airport, and that's just how we're rolling today. It's a cut down day, it's a big day across the NFL, nearly 1,000 players get released. And this roster that the Bears assembled, 37 cuts. I think there were nine that came through you on Monday, and then the rest of them came today, not a whole ton of surprises. And even in years past, there haven't been a lot of surprises since this regime took over in 2022. But now there's so much more talent that it does make their job a little bit harder when they're trying to work out those final couple spots. >> No, for sure. And I think, listen, this is a simple day content wise because there are two questions that every Bears fan in the world has right now. Are there any surprise cuts, and are there any additions that we expect? So let's start off with the number one, our team right here. Was there anybody who was released from this team that maybe you were a little bit shocked about? Or is there anything that you're hearing that may change based on some of those releases? We know that that can happen sometimes. >> So when they say I just want to make sure people know, and they say they wave the following players, and they release the following players. That language effectively means the same thing. It's just based on what your status is, how many years you've accrued in the NFL, whether you're a rookie, you're a player, or second year player, or if you're a vested veteran. Anyways, I go through this list. We knew that they're keeping two quarterbacks on the roster. So they were not going to keep Austin Reed, nor were they going to keep Brett Ripon. One of them will be back on the practice squad, whether I tend to think that going with the higher ceiling guy in Austin Reed, he trained with Caleb Williams throughout the off season before he got two Bears training. It got to a rookie camp and then got to training camp. My money's on him coming back here if they decide that they don't want to keep two quarterbacks on the practice squad. And the practice squad, you have a couple of days to kind of formulate those things. And of course, there's waiver claims around the NFL that we'll have to keep an eye on to see if the Bears put a claim in for anybody else. Other than that, I'd say, I had Michael Baskerville. I had them keeping six linebackers. They ended up keeping six defensive ends on the defensive line. And so, Michael Baskerville, I thought, played a hell of a training camp. Pre-season games, he had the pick six and multiple pick sixes, because he had one in camp too. I thought he probably played great. I mean, obviously, he outplayed Noah Sewell because Noah wasn't out there for anything except the, like, the last day of practice in that final pre-season game. But your fourth round pick from here ago, draft picks always have a longer leash. He made it on this roster over Baskerville, who showed a lot of potential, would imagine he'll, that Baskerville will end up being back on the practice squad at some point. But other than, like, that in terms of the cuts, you look at Cari Blaz and Game. And I said this earlier, on this podcast, I've set it on all of our shows on ESPN 1000 that this is a player that they value in the locker room and on the field too. And it's my understanding that they're going to, you know, they're waving him today with the intent that to bring him back. And I had checked in on this last week, I was given the ID, I was told, hey, I bet this is probably a 10% chance that they don't bring him back. From my understanding, this is probably due to having to carry someone who we believe to be Patrick Scales because we haven't seen him out there at training camp for a couple of weeks. He's dealing with a soft tissue injury in his back. They probably have to carry him on, the idea would be carrying him on to the 53-man roster so they can then put him on injured reserve where he can spend as much time as he needs before bringing him back. And then that would create a roster spot to then bring Cari Blaz and Game back into the fold on the 53-man roster. So you're expecting, because I'm not going to lie to you, Cari was surprised, cut for me to throw a wave, I guess, for me today, because of how we saw him utilize the last couple of preseason games. I thought that their early on, right, maybe keep an extra tight end, it didn't seem like they wanted to go with that and then seeing Cari's game come across, Cari's name come across was a little bit of a shock to me. You expect Cari to be black back on this team. I do, I do, and I think that his role is important in this offense. It's not just the numbers game and all of that. He puts himself in a situation where he will be relied on, not just for blocking, he can line up in the backfield, he can line up in the slot, he can do everything, he's a huge special teams player for them, even what we had been talking about going into roster cut down day was, do they keep four tight ends or do they keep all the running backs, which they did, and a full back in addition there. I think the three tight ends that make the roster, Mercedes Lewis, Cole Comatt and Gerald Everett, you're going to be relying on Cari Blazzing game to have some sort of role in terms of run blocking, past blocking, whatever it is, that's something that he excels at and is very good at. And you want that on this roster, despite the fact that Shane Waldron is not used a full back in his offense prior to when he was a play caller in Seattle. So that didn't surprise me. When you start peeling back the layers of okay, this is not something that they anticipate being like he's gone, he's going to go sign somewhere else. This is a way for him to, it's just, it's, it's accounting for the roster more or less to be able to get somebody else through so they can get onto, because if you cut Patrick's scales today, I'm sure somebody would sign it. That's clearly their fear of using a very injured player right now on the active roster instead of, you know, just cutting him and then, you know, seeing if nobody signs him and then you can sign him back, you know, whatever, but they want to get him on the IR. This is the way to do that and you'll create a roster spot tomorrow to do that and then to bring Kari blazin game back. I thought was interesting about blazin game's name coming up was the first question I had outside of why we actually cut him was or waved him, I should say, was, is he an addition to this team because of some of the issues that the Bears have on the offensive line? We know that they kept Roshan Johnson here. Mercedes Lewis was an obvious keep on this team, but did you keep Kari blazin game? Because of some of the abilities he has in the blocking game, because of the struggles that the Bears have offensive line wise. I mean, his role as a he's done a lot of that, like as a as a fullback, being able to help out and pass protection, that's huge. We saw him do that the last couple of years with Justin Fields, the first two years that he played in Chicago. And I anticipate that being a role that he will have going forward. Now, you know, I'm not saying the Bears are going to utilize the tight end position the way that we see San Francisco do it with Kyle Eustchek. I don't think that he and Kari blazin game is necessarily the same player, but he can do a lot more too than just block. I mean, his role in special teams, both on, you know, kickoff and punt coverage for face special team are like, those roles are not, you know, those are important roles to this team. So you have not just like his product, not probably just like, you know, Chad Morton is running backs coach vouching for him. You have Richard Hightower being an advocate for Kari blazin game in the room trying to break down like, okay, this guy versus that guy. And if they felt that somebody else would have signed him right away, kind of just like the way that they're feeling it out around the league, but also looking at other teams cuts and tea in other teams needs, which is what they do for 31 other teams throughout training camp. If they felt there was a risk, they wouldn't end up, they wouldn't have done it this way. So this will be something that I imagine will take place tomorrow, when they can, you know, I think the deadline is three p.m. East, three p.m. Central time that they have to place Patrick's, they can place Patrick's scales on to IR, create a roster spot and then sign Kari blazin game back to the 53 or two, I think one of the, yes, 100% to the 53, right? I think one of the big questions now though, because of right, keeping Kari blazin game, we didn't see a lot of the names that we thought maybe would be leaving the Chicago Bears due to the running back position and how deep they are. We didn't see a lot of those leave on this cut list. One in particular has been Vailus Jones, man, you've talked about Vailus a lot on this podcast. I think that what we saw in that final game saved him maybe a little bit more, but when you see Vailus Jones retained on this roster, I want to ask you this though, when you, when you talk about Ryan polls, does it feel like maybe there's a little bit of a blind spot to his draft picks when you look at the guys that Ryan polls have drafted have not been exited from this roster and maybe there's major questions on them. I mean, Jotari Carter was one of the cuts yesterday. He ended up getting released and you know, that's, I'm not surprised by that one. I do think that that was not a shot. You know, that one was not surprising and even, you know, even with the offensive line where it was, I don't think anybody had him on their final roster, or at least like, you know, in my projections, there were other offensive linemen that had, you know, that it put themselves in a better position. So that's the first, at least of the draft picks, you know, this time around. That's the only one that you saw leave, however, I've, and I maintain this throughout the entire off season, I never had valus off my roster. He, you know, there's a couple of reasons why the bears wouldn't cut him. He's a third round draft pick from two years ago. Usually you give guys until year three, like through year three to figure it out. And sometimes they, they come on, sometimes they don't like the first chance, you know, they have to cut him. If he does something, if he, if he messes up somehow, they will, and that's, you know, you don't want a player to ever be like, okay, let's just be, like, we'll wait and see if you become a liability and then we'll cut you. But you know, he's fast, and I think running back, there's, it's a simpler position in terms of not having to learn, not having to like execute as much of the route tree and the route concepts. And if you can use his speed to an advantage of years on offense, then it's worth a roster spot. There's no real risk on it right now because he was drafted in the third round for a reason. He's a talented player. If you could just put it together, he gives you the contributions and kick return and give you those contributions on offense, then you're in a good spot to, to know that you will get some contributions out of him this year. Now, is he going to become Cordeiro Patterson? I highly doubt it, but there's only one, frankly. But I just, I look at, I just, I don't know why this was ever really a big storyline other than the fact that hard knocks kind of played it up as such and the way that Vailus's first two years went, kind of put him in this position, weren't felt like now or never. No, I agree with that, but right. Do you, I guess here, here's my big question with this. When you look at the production level, right, with guys like Dominique Robinson, with guys like Vailus Jones, I would say, and I think most people around the NFL would say they're not 52 and 53, especially with what you saw released from this roster. If you want to, if we want to talk about your tear card or not being that level of guy, I'm with you on that. But can we say that your tear card has had zero production at an NFL level? I don't think we can say that. And so with Vailus, with Domrop, right? Like, I guess that there's been some production that's not a, it's not out of body to say, but can we say that they've had that level of production to make this team? I'm a little bit surprised that those are two names that are on this team, even though they've been given the reps. Let's talk about Domrop then, because that was one that also felt like a now or never situation. And he admitted that he knew that special teams and the role that he has on coverage units, which was different, especially in kickoff coverage. They're using different body types to block. He doesn't have to run as far as he did before. I mean, it's little things like that that made his job and his role in getting onto this roster more beneficial than somebody else. And every, you got to listen closely to what these coaches are saying when you hear Matt Eberflu shout out guys, like Dominic Robinson, Daniel Hardy, Demarkis Walker, who we knew what Demarkis Walker was making, the roster, Daniel Hardy is a backup, but like he had a great camp. He put it together this year. He made the fifth initial 53 and they kept six defense events, which we'll see if that sticks. Yeah, just hearing Matt Eberflu's talk about Dominic Robinson and seeing, you know, talking about what he's seen from him the last couple of weeks, that indicated that it's somebody that you expected to still be around. I mean, how, who did he shout out in the offensive line? We're all kind of like, Hmm, a couple of weeks ago, Bill Murray, who made the end of the 53 man roster? Yeah. Don't worry. Like follow the clues here. They're leaving a trail of beans for everybody to like, you know, pick up and it leads you to an answer. These coaches, for as much as they don't want to say anything, sometimes they drop hands without even realizing they're doing it. Right. No, a hundred percent. I just think that I guess the question would be in the long term, right? Is there a blind spot for Ryan Paul's draft picks? But at the end of the day, you're talking about guys that are 52 and 53 on the roster. You feel better about the situation that you're in right now with whether, how the bears have added to it, how Ryan polls is added to it. So I don't think that the bears at all are in a bad situation. One thing that we got that I thought was very interesting this weekend was we got a lot of the I R names of the guys that haven't been way, but have been put on into reserve and stuff like that. We're there. First off, when the heck did he and Wheeler get hurt? Well, I guess this is the first pod we've had since that when we really get hurt, that's the reason he attended the game in Kansas City. So that was, it's unfortunate, for him, a torn ACL means that his stuff was over. That one sucks. Yeah. And this is a guy, too, who was trying to make the roster, and I hate it for him because he was a prime candidate for the practice squad, and you hope that he's able to recover at some point because eventually he's going to want to go to med school. Or like he is the other aspirations and being a football player, but based on how his injury heals and how long it takes, will he have a shot next year, but that's a really tough spot for an undrafted free agent to be in. Courtney, what happens first? Does Ian Wheeler sign with the Dallas Cowboys or does he go to med school? That's the question right now. Yeah. That's a great question. I heard they had a bunch of running back to try to fix that gaping hole that they have down there. Courtney and Wheeler, like in terms of like what his future aspirations are beyond football, I just hate it for him that he got injured. And that one was Saturday that he was put on injured reserve. Yeah. Yeah. That one sucks. That one sucks for sure. I mean, listen, there's been a lot of exodus from this team. I don't think there's been a ton of surprise, which is good as far as a fan standpoint, which is good as far as an organizational standpoint, because years passed, right? There have been guys that we've talked about is like, you can't get rid of this guy. Yeah. And all of a sudden he's gone. And you're like, well, this team is going to be terrible without him. And they would have been terrible with him, right? But have there been anybody who's been released from other teams, anybody who's out there that you look at and you say, that's going to be a great addition by the Chicago Bears, even with how stacked this team currently is right. I'll be honest. I haven't seen that many other teams like cuts, they're having the biggest name I remember seeing today was probably Frank Gore Jr. when he got released from Buffalo. They have a running background that's set. So like, that's not, it's not an option for Chicago. I don't know, like you'd, you'd think if you're looking to upgrade certain positions, well, which ones are they still probably the defensive line? So they had six defensive ends go on to the roster, Montes sweat, Dominique Rob, or excuse me, will start in order. Montes sweat, Demarcus Walker, Daniel Hardy, Austin Booker, Daryl Taylor, and who my Dominique Robinson. Dominique Robinson, and then of course the other, the defensive tackles, everybody from Dexter to Billings to Chris Williams, the guy that they just brought in, and then Pickens. So numbers wise, they're set right now, but if they feel at some point, they can upgrade and I don't think it'll be now, like the big names are not on the market at this point. So like, they're just, they're not available, like names that would be like impact game-changing names, or just feel like they're in a spot where they are going to roll with who they have. And that becomes the question of, well, how do you, if your pass rush is not very good again this year, like it was last year, just in terms of pressure in the quarterback, what do you do to upgrade it? Is that something that you have to address via the, via the train deadline? The answer's probably going to be yes, if they, if they feel that they're a contending team this year, or even if they feel that there's somebody who might be headed towards free agency soon, in the last year of a contract, kind of like a Montez sweat situation, Ryan Paul has shown he has no issue doing business at that time of the calendar year and season. But I don't think that there's going to be, you know, people look at this defensive end group, like are these six going to stick? I don't, I don't think there's going to be any like major additions at that position outside of like how they decided to put these six on the initial 53. How comfortably comfortable do you feel the team is right now when you look at somebody additions, they made late round additions, right? And that's, that's what I, I'm imploring people to realize, right? We're talking about six round picks. We're talking about late round picks in the future, right? Multiple six that, you know, you're, you're kind of okay moving off of, do you feel like the guys that were brought in a derail Taylor who was brought in 21 and a half sec guy over three seasons? That's not a bad name to add. But do you feel like the bears feel comfortable where they're at right now entering the season or is there a little bit of nervousness around this team, especially on the line? No, I do feel that they're a lot more comfortable than they were this time of years. I remember like talking with people inside house hall and there was this, you know, this time last year, there was a lot of hype around this bears team and there were people inside the building saying, pump the brakes, we're not sure we're going to be ready to go. First off all the injuries and just like from a talent perspective, you know, the roster looked a lot different 12 months ago, however, even with like, you know, Daryl Taylor and Chris Williams, I know it sounds like, you know, hey, six round pick for this guy, seventh round, you know, pick swap effectively for the other guy. There's still additions that the bears felt they that were better than, okay, let's just comb through all the cuts like, you know, they were players who they were eyeing as potential cuts on somebody else's roster or, you know, players they could get on the cheap and using a late day three thick is a smart, smart way to go about it. I, you know, would are those guys better than somebody you can sign off off of cuts off the pool that's now available nearly a thousand players, probably because otherwise they wouldn't have done that they would have ended up keeping, you know, the roster the way it was and signing somebody tomorrow or even later in the week or when there's, I went over to the knee because those guys, if they don't sign anywhere, they just revert to being free street free agents and they're going to be available until they're not. What does that say about a confidence level on that opposite edge of Montes sweat right now though, right? You talk about a Demarcus Walker, we heard the praise that Austin Booker got on hard knocks, right? And we know but we know that they were looking to go get Matthew Judon, when you bring in a guy like Dorel Taylor, when you bring in those guys who can attack the edge, do you feel like the bears feel like that is still a major need on this team? I mean, let's not be dumb, like Dorel Taylor is not Matthew Judon. I know Matthew Judon. That's lovely. He's coming off of a bicep injury, like they're not the same player but it's still an aggressive approach to try to find somebody to pair with Montes sweat on the opposite side of that defensive line. Now, what Flus said on Saturday is that this is a position that they anticipate, like, leave that role. They said they're going to ride the hot hands. So we'll see. Could it still be Demarcus Walker? Sure. It's not the idea of, well, I don't know why you traded for this guy, if he's not going to be the starting defensive end opposite Montes sweat, like he does have production, you know, two years, just about 20 BC, you know, for, you know, his first year, he was injured. Nine and a half. Yeah, no. Well, first year 2020 didn't play. So yeah, he didn't play. It's like, but he, you know, 2021 through 2023, three seasons, he got 21 and a half sacks and he started only a handful of those games. He's got the production that made it valuable to the Bears to send a draft pick to go get him. Does that mean he's going to start? I think we're going to honestly have to wait and see, I do kind of look at that situation and think if he can outplay Demarcus Walker and even then, like taking Demarcus Walker inside on certain, in certain sub packages is something that they've done before and it's something that they could do again. But it's not, it's not nearly the upgrade that they would have had. Like you would have had your two Ed Drushers set. If they were able to land Matthew Judon last week, it would have been Judon and it would have been Montesquat and Judon could have, you know what it was, but it's just the case right now and we'll see how those things work out. But the way they look at it is that they got somebody who is better than anybody in the cut pool, at least who they anticipated being cuts. Maybe that opinion changes when they see everybody's list, but the way that they anticipated it, he's better than any of the other options that they thought they could have gone after potentially as cuts. Yeah. I think again, right? The question for most Bears fans is 21 and a half sacks, three seasons, then play the rookie season. He's on his fourth year deal. Is this just a money issue that the Patriots were willing to go, we don't need you? Why wasn't he playing? Why wasn't he a part of this team? What are your thoughts on that? No, no, I'm talking about Dural Taylor here. Well, I mean, didn't they just have an injury yesterday and like they had to go out and sign Travis Gibson, who was with the Bears for the first year under Ryan Polls, he was part of the previous regime, kind of like, you know, it sounds like depth, it sounds like, you know, fit too. I mean, when we talked to Dural Taylor the other day, I mean, he's gone from Pete Carroll's defense to learning, Mike McDonald's defense, and that's a three-four, so his role changed. Now he's going back to being in a four-three and he knows what his role is. It's a better scheme fit for him here. So I don't think the season, he was restricted for reagent because to explain it, just the easiest terms that because he missed that first full season as a rookie, and I believe it was because he was on NFI because it was an injury that he sustained while at Lost Hill College, like, it didn't give him the normal, like, rookie timeline where he would have been as a second round pick, like, you know, going into a contract year in 2020. Right. So like, money-wise, it could have been that. And I also think just like overall fit in Seattle in this new scheme that there were just other guys that they felt were a better fit and that made him expendable. Now, I'm sure like after the injury happened the other day, they probably wouldn't want their six-round pick, you know, or would have would want their, you know, want their player back instead of just having an extra six-round pick to do something with. Right. That's the way it goes. Yeah. Sometimes that's the funny part about this time of year. Sometimes it's literally just the second you trade somebody. You could have used that guy again. And that is, I think for Bears fans right now, the Bears being on the right side of this, I mean, when you look at camp, when you look at the long-term, the injury bug right now is the best that it's been in the last three years. You feel good about it. You can make some additions based on that. I think that most Bears fans will be excited by the addition of Dorel Taylor. And at the end of the day, having somebody, and I love how Flue said this, I think that because his position is defined, right? Especially with some of the guys that have been brought in, a defined position may make that guy be a better player than what we've seen from him in his time in New England. So I'm excited about the addition of Dorel Taylor as well. At the end of the day, Courtney, was there anything from today that surprised you? Was there anything from today that shocked you? Or do you think that for the first time in three years, this is business as usual? This is a quiet, cut-down day. It really was. There were names the last couple of years that you wondered about. But really nothing that jumped off the page. I've covered cut-down days that have been way more eventful than the ones that we've had in Chicago since 2022. Today was as expected. Most of the names that you see on there are at least the cuts that were released today were either veterans who had been bouncing around for a while who were probably practiced squad candidates or UDFA rookies that they brought in as camp bodies, and some of that can apply to some vets too. But I mean, to help think about last year, PJ Walker, who they signed, paid $5.5 million for him to come to Chicago to be the number two quarterback and he gets beat out by a Division II guy who is now their number two quarterback. That was a pretty big story. And Alex Leatherwood, the guy they had claimed, picked up all those guarantees the year before, ends up getting cut right before cut-down day happened last year. So that was way more eventful than anything we saw today. No. Yeah, 100%. I think the thing that I love about Ryan Paul is the ability to say, let's take a chance. Maybe I'll get beat on this. Maybe I'll get called out for this. Maybe I'll have a problem with this after it's done, but a PJ Washington, a Alex Leatherwood, those are names of guys who you were like, well, if you pick their money up, you expect something from them. And you got nothing from them realistically on this Bears team. So I think that his ability to take a chance, it's put us in this position and I'm excited about that. And I think that's the best situation for the Bears long term. But for Courtney Cronin, like I said, I'm Heather designer. I'm excited. I think that this is a very uneventful cut-down day. And that's a good thing Bears fans, be excited about that. I do want to let you guys know to hit that like button, subscribe to the page, lead a five star view. Y'all know what to do. If any news breaks, you know, you can count on us here at the Chicago Bears podcast to be on top of that. As always, man, y'all stay set by the Chicago Bear Dine, one love, peace. (upbeat music)