Bears flex Tyler Bray to the active roster, but why?

On Saturday the Chicago Bears moved quarterback Tyler Bray from the practice squad to the active roster.

With the new rule allowing teams to flex up to two players to the active roster each week — taking their 53-man roster to a 55-man roster — there was no corresponding move needed when moving Bray up.

Bray was already the Bears protected player this week, so that would have prevented teams from signing him off Chicago’s practice squad, so why make the move now?

The NFL Reserve/COVID list was released today for all 32 teams, and the Bears had no one pop up on that, so there wasn’t an outbreak at Halas Hall.

If there was an injury or an illness to either Nick Foles or Mitchell Trubisky, the Bears would have to report that to the league and it would be noted on the final injury report for Sunday’s game.

So why flex Bray up now?

Speculation was quick to pile up on social media, so here are a few theories as to why.

• The Bears have a trade in the works for Trubisky.
• Trubisky is in the game plan this week at something other than QB and they need insurance in case he’s hurt.
• They are completely out on Mitch as the QB2.
• The Bears simply want to get Bray a gameday paycheck.
• The Bears plan to carry 3 QBs on the active roster from here on out with a few teams having COVID-19 outbreaks.

My best guess, and this is simply a guess, is that with a couple quarterbacks going on the Reserve/COVID list, they want to keep Bray on the active roster moving forward so he’s not signed away once his protection ends.

What do you think the reason is for Bray’s ascension?