I think Horsted has another year of PS availability. Holtz may as well since that is from where they took him.

Kmet, Harris and Graham are the only definites. Braunaker if they go with five since he has become an excellent special teamer.

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

Guessing the 53-man this far out is kind of a fool's errand but I suspect that they are intent on roster five tight ends. If they need to roster a fourth runningback, extra offensive lineman or third-string quarterback it'll turn into a battle at the wide receiver position. In fact I'll guess right now that one of Mooney, Wims, Ridley or even Patterson doesn't make the roster.

I know this much, Dax Raymond is a guy they really like and they've got out of their way to keep him around the same way they did Alex Bars. If they go five tight ends I figure the battle will be between Holtz, Raymond and Braunecker. Shaheen honestly doesn't figure into the equation unless guys start dropping to injury.

While we're talking about the 53-man...their situation at runningback is really dire. Montgomery showed nothing to really indicate he's anything more than a change-of-pace back and Tarik Cohen is kind of a positionless gadget player that cant shoulder the load. That's about all they've got. Behind this offensive line I really dont know how they plan on being able to run the ball at all. If they are zero threat to run the pass rush teams are going to bring is going to be in waves.

https://www.windycitygridiron.com/2020/ ... m-jp-holtz

The Chicago Bears have announced they are releasing tight end Dax Raymond.

With the Bears adding second round tight end Cole Kmet, and their reported addition of undrafted free agent WR/TE Ahmad Wagner (6’5”, 234) from the University of Kentucky, the Bears likely felt comfortable paring away some of their tight end depth. Raymone may not be the only one they let go.

Raymond was a highly touted undrafted free agent a year ago, but he wasn’t able to stand out in camp over their other UDFAs. The Bears waived him with an injury designation in September on 2019, but brought him back to their practice squad a month later. He was most recently given a reserve/futures deal in December.

Besides the two tight ends mentioned above, Chicago has eight others on the roster to compete for either the Y or the U positions and they are Ben Braunecker, Darion Clark, Jimmy Graham, Demetrius Harris, J.P. Holtz, Jesper Horsted, Eric Saubert, and Adam Shaheen.

I have no idea why they wouldn't just keep Raymond for now and cut Shaheen.

Right after I said they liked him a lot. They had gone out of their way to protect him during the season, guess that's over!

I dont know, maybe he did or said something to piss them off. There was no harm in having the guy come to camp.

If Kmet can come in and fill the Y TE spot it solves a lot of problems, Graham is obviously the starting U, so they keep 2-3 other TE's. They have brought in bunch of UDFA's in an attempt to find a guy that can fill the U position with limited success. The bar is pretty low, all Kmet has to do is be a willing blocker and put up 2-3 catches per game and the production from the position skyrockets. Nagy is likely banking on Foles finding the mismatches that should present themselves when Kmet and Graham are both on the field and picking up the easy 5 yard completions you could get when a smaller S or slower LB are covering a TE.

Because Raymond was a FA, and Shaheen is a 2nd rd pick that they still hope to salvage.

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Why not get Moss kid?

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Be well

GO BEARS!!!

he signed with wash. i believe. may be a hot take but that kid was let down by his mom's genes.

He came up big at the end of the season, has HoF genes and good measurables at the combine. His mother is an example of how drugs can destroy you. Especially when you spend $4M on them.

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Be well

GO BEARS!!!

She's a legit three now and truth be told look at her younger photos and you could see the writing on the wall.

So the Bears are projected at three sixths and a seventh in terms of compensatory picks for next year. If they can get Jimmy Graham off the roster by week ten they can probably do like they did with Mike Davis and squeeze up to a fourth. That would make up for the Gipson trade-up.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

I like the optimism but nobody is signing Jimmy Graham after this

I guess to be fair I thought that was obviously true two months ago too.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

It's good to dream.

Can only assume they are waiting to cut Shaheen because there is some type of cap savings involved in cutting him after a certain date?

Somebody signed Mike Davis so all bets are really off.

He'll get to come to training camp and lose his roster spot to competition. They dont save anything but cutting him now, invite him to camp and give him a chance. By all indications the guy has not been unwilling to do the work or acted like a douchebag. He just sucks.

If there were no names on the jerseys, Graham wouldn't make the team. Shaheen either.

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Big opportunity lost, should have grabbed him. Heard two scouts say he was the best blocking WR in the draft. He's physical, gotta have some of his old man in him.

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I'd honestly rather have Shaheen than Graham. Graham brings nothing, you're actually worse when he's on the field because there's so much he cant (or really is at this stage in his career is unwilling to do) that it telegraphs to the defense that you're operating on a really limited playbook.

Between the two I'm really not sure who is slower these days. Surely neither is appreciably better in the passing game than the other, so might as well have the guy who at least is willing to block vs. the guy who isn't.

And look, Jimmy Graham has had Russell Wilson and Aaron Rodgers as his last two quarterbacks. Adam Shaheen has had Mitch (Pro Bowl QB) Trubisky and Chase Daniel. Neither are really rosterable players but I 100% would prefer to give Shaheen a roster spot than Graham.

Graham looked pretty shopworn last season I was a bit surprised by the signing. I just looked at Graham's contract...wow.

It’s funny. Jimmy Graham can give you 20-30 good snaps if he really needs to in a playoff game. That’s about it. With that and the Foles trade the Bears acquired two playoff guys who suck in the regular season but their team isn’t good enough to make the playoffs most likely.

Maybe the switch to 7 games let’s them squeeze in though.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

The more I hear about Jaylon Johnson, the more I like him.

Let's hope he can stay healthy.

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I kind of like Horsted. Seems like the kind of guy who could develop into something.

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Yeah he's a top ten type talent that went 2.50, but nobody has any idea the condition of his shoulder. As a player he's certainly better than Terrell, Arnette or Henderson.

But at the same time there's a good chance that shoulder is cooked and he starts the season on PUP and this time next year we are praying he winds up having a Jaylon Smith arc.

Their only hope is Foles. The guy has done the impossible before, it would not be out of character for him to grab this moribund roster and drag it to ten wins. He's got two stud wide receivers and that's it.

Last time he did this he had the best offensive line in the sport. Now he has the worst. I suspect that will make a huge difference.

You could say this about (Pro Bowl QB) Trubisky since day 1.

Heard him interviewed and it sounded like he's nowhere near ready. Found it interesting that all the experts keep saying he likes to play press coverage, maybe more chances for sacks/turnovers, but also chances to give up big plays.

Pagano favors corners who can play man-to-man since he likes to blitz a lot. This was also the defensive style played at Utah, where Johnson allowed only 3 touchdowns in something like 1200 passing situations during his career. His college coaches absolutely loved him, calling him one of the smartest and toughest players they've ever seen.

Johnson didn't have his labrum surgery until March because he wanted to participate in the Combine. Recovery time from that surgery is approximately 3-4 months, I believe.

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I thought I heard he's already had shoulder surgery on each shoulder..this is his third surgery.

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