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With the size of NFL offseason rosters being up in the air until recently, I wanted to wait to see exactly who the Chicago Bears were planing to bring into their 2020 training camp before diving into my annual position by position roster battle series. But now with the league settling on 80 players instead of 90, I have a better idea of what the team plans to do.
Keep in mind that teams still have to set a 53 man roster for week one, but then the roster size jumps to 55 for the remainder of the season with a little more flexibility between the active roster and the practice squad.
Considering the Bears only have three quarterbacks in camp, there’s not much drama over who makes the team.
Roster Locks
The Bears may have an open competition at the quarterback spot, but the loser isn’t going anywhere. Mitchell Trubisky and Nick Foles will fight it out for the starting gig with the QB2 job being the consolation prize.
I think by now we all know where each other stands on who we’d like to see win the QB1 job and who we think will win the QB1 job. *
EDIT: For those wondering about the Foles rumors from earlier today.
#RealNews: Nick Foles is not opting out. The #Bears QB competition remains on. This rumor of a Foles opt-out has been making the rounds since this morning. It's not true. https://t.co/4IYetmVkM8
— Mike Garafolo (@MikeGarafolo) July 28, 2020
A good bet to make it
The Bears only have three QBs on the offseason roster and the odds of opening up with all three on the 53-man roster are slim.
On the bubble
Just like they’ve done the last few years, the Bears could probably feel safe in cutting Tyler Bray and then signing back him to their practice squad. Although with the coronavirus potentially messing with other QB rooms around the NFL, the Bears could elect to keep Bray on their opening 53 just to be safe. If there’s a rash of positive tests among the backup QBs throughout the NFL before the cut-down to 53 comes, the Bears might feel more comfortable by keeping Bray.
But if they do waive him and bring him back to the practice squad they’ll have the option of protecting 4 such players each week.
* I think we’ve had plenty of Mitch vs Nick debates in our comment threads the last few months, so let’s try and save that topic for another time and instead lets talk about what we all think the Bears will do with that third quarterback spot.