The following is a comprehensive list of healthy Bears wide receivers who caught at least one pass in an actual NFL game last season: Darnell Mooney, Equanimeous St. Brown, Dante Pettis and ….
Actually, that’s it. That’s the list.
Two-and-a-half weeks away from the season opener against the 49ers, the Bears have more than a depleted wide receiver room. They have a full-blown problem.
Byron Pringle has a quad injury and hasn’t practiced in almost three weeks. N’Keal Harry’s high-ankle sprain prompted surgery and a likely October return. Tajae Sharpe hasn’t practiced since his standout performance in the Bears’ preseason opener. Rookie Velus Jones played in Thursday’s preseason game against the Seahawks but has missed practice time with an injury both before and since.
Dazz Newsome, who caught two passes for the Bears last season, was so inconsistent in training camp that the team cut him Monday.
The Bears will keep six or seven receivers when they cut their roster down to 53 players on Tuesday. With so many question marks — because of injury, inexperience and a lack of past success — it’d be shocking if they didn’t add receivers cut loose by other teams next week. Those receivers would likely bounce to the Bears off the waiver wire, but it’s fair to wonder if general manager Ryan Poles will consider trading for one.
Unlike his predecessor, Poles is saving his draft assets — and his franchise’s salary allocations — for a season where the Bears will be closer to contending for the playoffs. But Poles knows that nothing is more important than putting quarterback Justin Fields in the best position to succeed this year. By the end of the season — and it’s really that urgent, as the team likely will have a high draft pick and the opportunity to consider other quarterbacks — the Bears need to know whether Fields is their future. Can they do that if he’s throwing to the current group of pass-catchers? The injuries to Pringle and Jones, whom the Bears have said will be ready for the start of the season, has obliterated what little depth they had.
St. Brown believes the Bears already have enough talent in-house, even with the injuries.
“Of course,” he said. “I think we’ve got enough with our whole team. Everyone’s a professional, everyone’s in the NFL, and they get paid to do what they do. Injuries are a part of the game … People get injured and go down, and the next person has to be ready and has to know what they’re doing.”
Getting a next-man-up speech in August is never a good sign. But it applies to more than one Bears position group.
Below is a comprehensive list of healthy Bears cornerbacks who played a defensive snap in the NFL last year: Jaylon Johnson, Kindle Vildor, Duke Shelley and Devontae Harris.
Second-year cornerback Thomas Graham hasn’t practiced all training camp because of a hamstring problem, while veteran Tavon Young — who at one point in his career was the highest-paid slot cornerback in the NFL — has missed most of the month with a lower-leg problem.
The Bears haven’t been able to evaluate either player in their defensive scheme — at least without squinting. How they’ll decide whether or not to keep them on their roster is an even bigger issue.
“I think those decisions will be with the scouting department side,” defensive backs coach James Rowe said this week. “I don’t really make the roster decisions as much. But I like both of them as players.”
Young spent most of that time training in water, Matt Eberflus said, before working his way up to dry land last week.
“He’s been in the pool a lot,” Eberflus said.
Next week, Poles should be, too. He needs to take a deep dive into the league’s talent pool. What he has right now simply won’t work.
