Adam Jahns/Kevin Fishbain on Bears Final Roster Projections

[soulman]

BEARS
Chance of a lifetime

For players on roster bubble, Saturday’s preseason finale, followed by 3 days of cuts, will prove to be nerve-wracking
Bears linebacker Caleb Johnson recovers a fumble by Bills quarterback Davis Webb during Saturday’s preseason game against the Bills at Soldier Field. Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune

By Dan Wiederer Chicago Tribune

After each of his two fumble recoveries Saturday against the Bills, Caleb Johnson felt as if a magnet was pulling him. In the fourth quarter, after pouncing on a football that Bills quarterback Davis Webb left on the Soldier Field grass, Johnson sprang up and searched everywhere for the Bears’ suddenly popular Takeaway Bucket.

Finally, he spotted it.

Like a fourth grader dashing between houses on Halloween, Johnson raced to the sideline with purpose, jumped over the Bears bench and dunked the football through the rim on the Takeaway Bucket.

“I’ve been waiting to put one in the bucket my entire time here,” Johnson said. “I couldn’t find it at first. When I saw it, I was like ‘Yeah. I’m going to get my dunk in!’”

As for the bench leap?

“Impulse decision,” Johnson said. “I don’t think I’ll make that decision again.”

Only one technicality: Johnson recovered a second fumble on the next series and did the same thing. Sprint. Bench leap. Jam.
No apology necessary, of course. Not at this stage of the preseason when fringe players such as Johnson, an undrafted rookie linebacker from Houston Baptist University, need to do everything they can to turn the heads of their coaching staffs, front-office decision makers and, quite frankly, anyone else in the NFL who might be watching.

“It’s important that you continue to go out there and compete,” Johnson said. “Do your job and play hard and you’ll find a way to make a splash, to make that impact play.”

With Week 1 of the NFL season still a few weeks away, most fans are content waiting for the brighter lights to come on over the main stage before fully dialing back in. But for hundreds of players across the league, this is crunch time right now, a pressure-packed stretch during which the stakes and urgency have elevated to intense levels.

Johnson finds himself in that huge fraternity of hopefuls, underdogs trying to win spots on the 53-man roster. Any 53-man roster. Even a practice squad invitation would be nice.

All the while, those same players face a sobering reality. Their fork in the road is coming. By this time next week, their NFL dreams might have come true. Or they might be about to play their last downs of organized football.

“High stress,” Johnson said. “No doubt. But you have to put that aside and focus on the game.”

Between now and Tuesday’s 3 p.m. roster deadline, more than 800 players around the league will be cut. Yet there is still one more weekend of preseason action, 16 more exhibitions leaguewide for players to use as an audition.

“These are some of the biggest job interviews these guys will ever have in their entire life,” Bears coach Matt Nagy said Thursday morning. “That’s really big to me. It’s big to our coaches.”

The Bears will be in Nashville, Tenn., on Saturday night at Nissan Stadium. Their game against the Titans will be far from meaningless to most of the players who play.

Stress test

Nagy has reminded every Bears player this week — from the A-list starters to the boys on the bubble — that Saturday’s game could have life-altering ramifications for so many of the men who have grinded through the last 41/2 weeks of training camp.

In a team meeting, Nagy stressed that the Bears will finish the preseason with approximately 190 snaps on each side of the ball and that even the players who have played a ton in August will only have been on the field for about one-third of those plays.

In that very limited window to show out? “Are there three or four plays in there where you catch a coach’s attention or eyes? Or maybe you catch a teammate’s attention,” Nagy said.

Through that lens, there will be sequences Saturday that prove pivotal in particular roster battles.

“Sometimes,” Nagy said, “you have that one player whom the coaches have a little doubt in. Then all of a sudden? They prove you wrong in this game.”

Not many players in the Nagy’s locker room need reminding. Inside linebacker Josh Woods is in Year 4 of his annual summer stress test, fully aware of just how intense Saturday’s evening’s game will be and how nerve-wracking the days that follow the preseason finale often are.

The game itself?

“It can be pretty stressful, pretty nerve-wracking,” Woods said. “But that’s not how the game of football is meant to be played, uptight like that. So you have to learn how to play your best ball through all that. And you have to look at this last game as an opportunity. That’s 100% what it is. You never know if it’s your last day, your last game, your last play. That’s exciting and stressful all at the same time.”

As for the drawn-out cuts process that might begin Sunday evening and will trickle into Tuesday, Woods has learned through experience how to more calmly surf those waves of tension and anxiety.

Step 1: Limit unnecessary phone contact whenever possible. Every trivial text message or incoming call can cause the angst to spike out of fear that it is the general manager, a fellow front-office exec or just a messenger reaching out to schedule the dreaded “We have to let you go” appointment.

“Getting a call,” Woods said, “isn’t a good thing.”

As an undrafted rookie who made the Bears through a rookie camp tryout, Woods was in a strange spot at the end of the 2018 preseason. He played 18 snaps in the Hall of Fame Game against the Ravens, then broke his hand against the Bengals the following week.

That put him out for preseason games against the Broncos, Chiefs and Bills and sent him into his Labor Day weekend feeling like he was on the outside looking in.

How could he possibly make the team after having his preseason cut so short?

“I thought I was gone,” Woods said. “Highly unlikely. My agent told me that in his 17 years he had never seen a case like mine where a guy still then made the team.”

On cuts weekend, Woods was out to breakfast with teammate Abdullah Anderson when Anderson got the dreaded call.

“Eating our pancakes and his phone rings,” Woods said. “The guys (at Halas Hall) tell him to come in as soon as possible and bring his iPad. I’m sitting there like, ‘Damn, bro. I’m so sorry.’ Five minutes later? My phone rings.”

Damn.

“We ended up driving back in together, heads down the whole way.”

Both Woods and Anderson took the gut punch but also got soft landings, signing to the Bears practice squad a day later. “It was like this weird mix — both sad and a blessing,” Woods said. “Because you’re still in the building. And that just gives you another opportunity.”

‘A moment I’ll never forget’

Tenth-year safety Tashaun Gipson might be an established starter now. But when he was an undrafted rookie with the Cleveland Browns in 2012, he, too, spent his Labor Day weekend waiting for his phone to ring but hoping it wouldn’t.

Of course, the curious calls from his family kept coming.

“I had to tell them, ‘Hey, you all have to stop calling me,’ “ Gipson said. “My phone is (laying) down. So when I heard those calls, my heart dropped like, ‘Is this the call, man?’ It was tough.”

Through that entire Saturday, no one from the Browns called Gipson. Eventually, he received a mass text alerting him of a team meeting for the following morning. So he did what any eager rookie would do. He replied to the entire group.

Does this mean I made the team?

Then came a wave of replies. Said Gipson: “Everybody was like, ‘Who is this?’”

Eventually, Gipson finally got his call from Browns coach Pat Shurmur. He made the team.

The next thing he knew he was on the phone with his mom, “running through the hallway in a Berea (Ohio) hotel crying.”

“It was a moment in my life I’ll never forget,” Gipson said. “It’s moments like that that keep me going.”

Woods experienced something similar in 2019, his second summer on the roster bubble. He was downtown with friends on cuts weekend and dreading a call from Lake Forest. Eventually, he received an email from Nagy’s executive assistant, Robyn Wilkey. Woods quickly opened it and saw the itinerary for Packers week. Week 1.

Woods was summoned to a team meeting that night, confirming he was indeed on the 53-man roster.
“I was speechless, man,” he said. “Once the meeting was over, I walked out, called my mom and cried.”

Moment of truth

All this brings up a question that no one around the league seems ready to answer. With NFL teams employing hundreds of people — from scouts to equipment managers, nutritionists to strength coaches, communications executives to player engagement directors — couldn’t they designate one person to deliver the good news on cut weekend, a direct congratulatory confirmation for the 53 players who make the team initially?
Why put so many players through that wringer?

“I think they kind of get off on that,” Woods said with a laugh. “I think they like the edginess about it. But they have no idea what it does to us.”
By this point of August, Nagy and general manager Ryan Pace have met regularly at Halas Hall, often glancing over the depth chart and trying to figure out the most logical steps to assemble the best possible roster for the regular season.

Nagy and Pace believe the Bears have quality depth across the board right now. Which puts them in a situation they like, understanding they will have to release some pretty good football players early next week.

That, of course, is not ideal for those pretty good players who soon will be out of a job.

Woods, for example, figures to play a good bit Saturday night against the Titans. He wants to. He knows that will provide one more chance to give Bears coaches a reason to keep him around.

Woods also has the comfort now, in Year 4, to understand that his NFL future won’t simply hinge on how he has performed in August 2021. He has been in the league for four years, been a valuable contributor on special teams and hopefully has put enough of his play on video to inform the league’s talent evaluators across 32 teams about what kind of a contributor he can be.

“I’m appreciative of where I’m now at at this point in my career,” Woods said, “because it gives you just a little more security. Not a lot more. But a little more where you hope some other team will be willing to take a chance on a guy with some valuable experience. But hey, you never know.”
Woods is good enough with math to understand the steepness of his climb in Chicago. Roquan Smith and Danny Trevathan are roster locks. Veterans Alec Ogletree and Christian Jones seem like good bets to make the team. That leaves Woods in an intense game of musical chairs with two of his buddies: 2018 fourth-round pick Joel Iyiegbuniwe and, yep, Caleb Johnson.

Still, even with the cutthroat nature of the competition, Woods has gone out of his way to help Johnson navigate his first few months as an NFL rookie.

“Josh has been in my ear the whole time, giving me tips on everything,” Johnson said. “On one of my first days, he came to me and said, ‘Let me know if you ever have any questions. I want to see everybody eat.’ That bond has been cool. “

Johnson is the first player ever out of Houston Baptist to reach the NFL. He feels grateful his football journey has brought him this far and is excited to take the preseason’s final exam Saturday night.

Just as he always does, Johnson will scrawl the No. 40 on his wrist tape in honor of his former Houston Baptist teammate Garrett Dolan, who died tragically on graduation weekend in 2018.

Johnson will think of Dolan before the game and remember to cherish this golden opportunity.

“I looked up to him,” Johnson said. “His dream was to make it to the NFL. It’s a blessing for me to go out there, put on the Bears jersey and show that I made it here for him.”

Nagy continues reminding all his players to “Be a star in your role.”
“Whatever I have to do to be a star in my role,” Johnson said, “I promise I’m going to take that opportunity and seize it.”
A big game awaits Saturday night. A long couple of days will follow.

[Heinz D.]

6 hours ago, HuskieBear said:

i mean, attaochu is significantly better than snowden at this point in time, and would help our defense much more than him. I think you should be upset if Vaughters gets put on the roster over snowden. 

i really don't think 5 OLB is excessive or out of the question with Mack-Quinn-Attaochu-Gipson-Snowden. Again, i wouldn't hate if snowden got "hurt" tomorrow and ended up on IR for the year

This team is rebuilding. I don't care about "this point in time".

We know what Attaochu is. Pretty much, anyway. If they sacrifice Snowden for Attaochu, they're making a monumental mistake. 

And you read it here first. 

[soulman]

26 minutes ago, Heinz D. said:

This team is rebuilding. I don't care about "this point in time".

We know what Attaochu is. Pretty much, anyway. If they sacrifice Snowden for Attaochu, they're making a monumental mistake. 

And you read it here first. 

All well and good but Attaochu has a deal that guarantees him $2.85 mil this year and we all know how that works.

It's more a matter of Snowden vs Vaughters provided either of them make the final cut. Once again having to hang on to Foles is costing us a roster position that could be filled by a position player.

[Heinz D.]

17 minutes ago, soulman said:

It's more a matter of Snowden vs Vaughters provided either of them make the final cut. Once again having to hang on to Foles is costing us a roster position that could be filled by a position player.

Yes, Foles was a "devil deal" that weighs things down...as there is such monumental money invested in the defense. 

Vaughters should go before Snowden. I mean, good lord, how is that even an issue/decision? 

[BEAR FACE DOWN ARROW]

11 hours ago, Heinz D. said:

Yes, Foles was a "devil deal" that weighs things down...as there is such monumental money invested in the defense. 

Vaughters should go before Snowden. I mean, good lord, how is that even an issue/decision? 

The Devil Deals has got me thinking; Pace has been really restrained this offseason. I feel like there's usually a Quinn or "An Eternity of Nick Foles' Creative Contracts" every year. Andy Dalton has to be the highest dollars, right? And there really aren't any long term deals that are new from this season (correct me if I'm wrong I had to go to work at 3am today)  Not a bad spot to be in if you think you have your QB. 

[soulman]

4 hours ago, RunningVaccs said:

The Devil Deals has got me thinking; Pace has been really restrained this offseason. I feel like there's usually a Quinn or "An Eternity of Nick Foles' Creative Contracts" every year. Andy Dalton has to be the highest dollars, right? And there really aren't any long term deals that are new from this season (correct me if I'm wrong I had to go to work at 3am today)  Not a bad spot to be in if you think you have your QB. 

Nope.  Attaochu got a 2 year deal but his gtd $$$ is paid off after year one so it has an escape hatch.  The rest were all one year deals as I recall.

The Foles and Quinn deals have really hurt us as far as offering extensions to some of our own guys and also with Foles taking up a roster another position player we would have preferred to keep is gonna get bumped.

If Quinn doesn't bounce back with double digit sacks and pressures it will be the single worst deal Pace ever made.  I only wish we could trade both those guys to the Jets.

[HuskieBear]

19 hours ago, Heinz D. said:

This team is rebuilding. I don't care about "this point in time".

We know what Attaochu is. Pretty much, anyway. If they sacrifice Snowden for Attaochu, they're making a monumental mistake. 

And you read it here first. 

you might not care about "this point in time," but the decision makers of the team certainly do. And they saw a need to upgrade OLB3 and signed JA50 to ~$3M guaranteed - he's gonna make the team over snowden, an UDFA that has flashed against back of roster guys. 

Don't take this the wrong way, I'm a big fan of Snowden, was stoked we got him after the draft, and of the back of the roster guys, he's the one i want to make it the most. but what i want doesn't mean that's what the team is going to do. 

now, if they "sacrifice" snowden for someone like Iggy/Woods/Hambright/Simmons/Nall, then i'll be a little salty. but i'll say it again, if they don't think he's going to make the 53, it would be GREAT if he got "injured" tonight, put on IR, and spent a year adding weight so he comes back next year better prepared for a full professional season.