Bears Roster Cuts Revealed: Takeaways, Surprises & What's Next w/Courtney Cronin

[Music] be on Bears fans another edition of the Chicago Bears podcast coming your way Pat the designer if you hear some water in the background it's cuz you got to get away you know what I'm saying sometimes you got to go away we got a little time off but not enough time off to not talk about cut down day PA the designer Courtney Cronin in the building and Courtney on another flight the hardest working woman in Sports Talk Courtney what's going on not much I am uh whoever's going to be hearing this podcast is uh gonna be hearing it live in the United Club at Newark Airport and that's just how we're rolling today it's cutdown day it's big day across the NFL nearly a thousand players get released and this roster that the Bears assembled 37 Cuts I think there were nine that came through you on Monday and then the rest of them came today not a whole ton of surprises and and even in years past there haven't been a lot of prizes since this regime took over in 2022 but now there's so much more talent that it does make their job a little bit harder when they're trying to work out those final couple spots no for sure and I think listen this is a simple day content wise because there are two questions that every Bears fan in the world has right now are there any surprise cuts and are there any additions that we expect so let's start off with the number one our team right here was there anybody who was released from this team that maybe you were a little bit shocked about or is there anything that you're hearing that may change based on some of those releases we know that that can happen sometimes so when like when they say I just want to make sure people know when they say they wave the following players and they release the following players like that language effectively means the same thing it's just based on you know what your status is how many years you've recruited in the NFL whether you're a rookie first year player or second year player or if you're a vested veteran anyways like go through this list we knew that they're keeping two quarterbacks on the roster so they were not going to keep Austin Reed nor were they going to keep Brett rippen one of them will be back on the practice squad whether I I tend to think that you know going with the higher ceiling guy in Austin Reed he trained with Caleb Williams throughout the off season before he got to Bears training got to rookie camp and then got to training camp my money's on him coming back here if they decide that they don't want to keep two quarterbacks on the practice squad and the practice squad you have a couple days to kind of form formulate those things and of course there's waiver claims around the NFL that we'll have to keep an eye on to see if the Bears put a claim in for anybody else other than that I'd say you know I had Micah Baskerville I had them keeping six linebackers they end up keeping six defensive ends uh on the defensive line so Micah basille I thought played a hell of a training camp uh pre-season games he had the pick six had multiple pick sixes because he had one in Camp too absolutely I thought he played great I thought I mean obviously he outplayed Noah Su because Noah wasn't out there for anything except the like the last day of practice and that final pre season game but your fourth round pick from a year ago draft picks always have a longer leash he made it on this roster over Baskerville who showed a lot of potential would imagine he'll that Baskerville will end up being back on the practice squad at some point but other than like that in terms of the cuts you look at krie blasen game and I said this earlier on this podcast I've said it on all of our shows on ESPN 1000 that 100% this is a player that they value um in the locker room and on the field too and it's my understanding that they're gonna you know they're they're waving him today with the intent that to bring him back when I had checked in on this last week I was given the idea I was you know told hey I bet this is probably a 10% chance that they don't bring him back from my understanding this is probably due to having to carry someone who we believe to be Patrick scales because we haven't seen him out there at training camp for a couple of weeks he's dealing with a soft tissue injury in his back they probably have to carry him on the idea would be carrying him onto the 53-man roster so they can then put him on injured reserve where he can you know spend as much time as he needs before bringing him back and then that would create a roster spot to then bring K blasing game back into the fold on the 53 man roster so you're expecting because I'm not going to lie to you K was a surprise cut for me today or a wave I guess for me today because of how we saw him utilized in the last couple of preseason games I thought that there early on right maybe keep an extra tight end it didn't seem like they wanted to go with that and then seeing K's game come across or car's name come across was a little bit of a shock to me you expect car to be black back on this team I do I do and I think that it his role is important in this offense it's not just you know the numbers game and all of that like he puts himself in a situation where he will be relied on not just for blocking I mean he can line up in the back field he can you know line up in the slot he can do everything he's a huge special teams player for them I would even like what we're what we had been talking about going into roster cutdown day was do they keep four tight ends or do they keep you know all the running backs which they did and a fullback in addition there I think you with the three tight ends that make the roster Mercedes Lewis Cole KT and Gerald Everett like you're G to be relying on Ki blasing game to have some sort of role in in terms of run blocking pass blocking whatever it is that's something that he excels at and is very good at and you want that on this roster despite the fact that Shane Waldren has not used a fullback in his offense prior to when he was a play caller in Seattle so that didn't surprise me when you start like peeling back the layers of okay this is not something that they anticipate being like he's gone you know he's gonna go signed somewhere else this is a way for him to it's just it's it's accounting for the the roster more or less to be able to get somebody else through so they can get onto because if you cut Patrick scales today I'm sure somebody would sign him that's clearly Their Fear of keeping a very injured player right now on the active roster instead of you know just cutting him and then you know seeing if you know nobody signs him then you can sign him back you know whenever um but they want to get him on the IR this is the way to do that and you'll create a roster spot tomorrow to do that and then to bring Ki blasing game back I thought it was interesting about blasing game's name coming up was the first question I had outside of while we actually cut him was or waved him I should say was is he in addition to this team because of some of the issues that the Bears have on the offensive line we know that they kept Roshan Johnson here Mercedes Lewis was an obvious keep on this team but did you keep KY blasen game because of some of the abilities he has in the blocking game uh because of the struggles that the Bears have offensive line wise yeah I mean his role as a he he's done a lot of that like as a as a fullback being able to help out and pass protection that's huge we've saw him do that the last couple years with Justin Fields the first two years that he played in Chicago and I anticipate that being a role that he will have going forward now you know I'm not saying the Bears are going to utilize the tight end position the way that we see San Francisco do it with Kyle yusek I don't think that he and Ki blasingame are necessarily the same player but he can do a lot more too than just block I mean his role special teams both on you know kickoff and and punt coverage he's four-f special teamer like those roles are not you know th those are important roles to this team so you have not just like his produ not probably just like you know Chad Morton his running backs coach vouching for him you have Richard Hightower being an advocate for krie blasen game in the room they're trying to break down like okay this guy versus that guy and if they felt that somebody else would have signed him right away kind of just like the way that they're feeling it out around the league but also looking at other teams cuts and team in other teams needs which is what they do for 31 other teams throughout training camp if they felt there was a risk they wouldn't end up they wouldn't have done it this way so this will be something that I imagine will take place tomorrow uh when they can you know I think the deadline is 3 pm East 3 p PM central time that they have to place Patrick's they can place Patrick scales onto IR create a roster spot and then sign Kye blasing game back to the 50 or two I think one of the yes 100% two to 53 right like I think one of the big questions now though because of right keeping KY blazing game we we didn't see a lot of the names that we thought maybe would be leaving the Chicago Bears due to the running back position and how deep they are we didn't see a lot of those leave on this cut list one in particular has been veis Jones me and you have talked about veis a lot on this podcast I think that what we saw in that final game saved him maybe a little bit more but when you see veis Jones retained on this roster I want to ask you this though when you when you talk about Ryan poles does it feel like maybe there's a little bit of a blind spot to his draft picks when you look at the guys that Ryan poles have drafted have not been exited from this roster and maybe there's major questions on them I mean jari Carter was one of the cuts yesterday he ended up um getting released and you know that's I'm not surprised by that one I do think that that was not a shot no that one was not surprising and even you know even with the offensive line where it was I don't think anybody had him on their final roster or at least like you know in my projections there were other offensive linemen that had you know that that had put themselves in a better position so that's the first at least of the draft picks you know this time around that's the only one that you saw leave however right I've and I and I maintained this throughout throughout the entire offseason I never had veis off my roster he you know there's there's a couple reasons why the Bears wouldn't cut him he's a third round draft pick from two years ago usually you give guys until year three like through year three to figure it out and sometimes they they come on sometimes they don't at the first chance you know they have to cut him if he does something if he if he messes up somehow they will um and and that's you know you don't want a player to ever be like okay let's just become like we'll wait and see if you become a liability and then we'll cut you um but you know he's fast and I think running back there's it's a simpler position in terms of not having to learn not having to like execute as much of the route tree and the rout Concepts and if you can use his speed to an advantage of yours on offense then it's worth a roster spot there's no real risk on it right now because he was drafted in the third round for a reason he's a talented player if you can just put it together he gives you the contributions on kick on kick return and giv you those contributions on offense then you're in a good spot to to know that you will get some contributions out of him this year now is he GNA become Cordo Patterson I highly doubt it but because there's only one frankly um but I just I look at I just I don't know why this was ever really a big storyline other than the fact that Hard Knocks kind of played it up as such and the way that veis his first two years went kind of put him in this position where it felt like now or never no I I agree with that but right do you I guess here here's my big question with this when you look at the production level right with guys like Dominique Robinson with guys like veis Jones I would say and I think most people around the NFL would say they're not 52 and 53 especially with what you saw released from this Rost if you want if we want to talk about J tier Carter not being that level of guy I'm with you on that but can we say that Jer Carter has had zero production at an NFL level I don't think we can say that and so with veis with domr right like I guess if there's been some production that's not a it's not out of body to say but can we say that they've had that level of production to make this team I'm a little bit surprised that those are two names that are on this team even though they've been given the Reps let's talk about domr then because that was one that also felt like a Now or Never situation and he admitted that he knew that special teams and the role that he has on coverage units which was different especially on kickoff coverage they're using different body types to block um he doesn't have to run as far as he did before I mean it's little things like that that made his job and his role in getting onto this roster more beneficial than somebody else and every you got to listen closely to what these coaches are saying when you hear m flu shout out guys like Dominique Robinson Daniel Hardy um Demarcus Walker who we knew Demarcus Walker was making the roster Daniel Hardy is a backup but like he had a great Camp he put it together this year he made the fif initial 53 and they kept six defensive ends which we'll see if that sticks but just hearing Matty bfl's talk about Dominique Robinson and seeing what you know talking about what he's seen from him the last couple of weeks that indicated that that's somebody that you expected to to still be around I mean how yeah who did he shout out on the offensive line where we were all kind of like H couple weeks ago Bill Murray who made the 53 man roster don't worry like follow the Clues here they're leaving a trail of beans for everybody to like you know pick up and it leads you to an answer these coaches for as much as they don't want to say anything sometimes they drop hints without even realizing they're doing it right no 100% I I just think that it I guess the question would be in the long long term right is there a blind spot for Ryan Po's draft picks but at the end of the day you're talking about guys that are 52 and 53 on the roster you feel better about the situation that you're in right now with where the how the Bears have added to it how Ryan poles has added to it so I don't think that the Bears at all are in a bad situation uh one thing that we got that I thought was very interesting this weekend was we got a lot of the IR Dames are the guys that haven't been waved but have been put on in reserve and stuff like that were there first off when the heck did Ian wheeler get hurt well I guess this is the first pod we've had since that when didan wheeler get hurt he got hurt that's the reason heed the game in Kansas City so um that was it's unfortunate you know for him a torn ACL means that his over like you know this is a guy too who was like you know trying to make the roster um and I hate it for him because he was a prime prime candidate for the practice squad and you hope that he's able to recover at some point because you know eventually he's going to want to go to med school remember like he is other aspirations than being a football player but based on how his injury heals and how long it takes will he have a shot next year like that's a really tough spot for an undrafted free agent to be in Courtney what what happens first does Ian Willer sign with the Dallas Cowboys or does he go to med school that's the question right now that's a great question um depends who they sign I heard they had like a bunch of running backs in to try to you know fix that uh gaping hole that they have down there but hey good for Ian wheeler like in terms of like what his future aspirations are Beyond football I just hate it for him that he got injured and that one was Saturday that he was put on injured reserve yeah yeah that one sucks that one sucks for sure uh I mean listen there's been a lot of Exodus from this team I don't think there's been a ton of surprise which is good as far as a fan standpoint which is good as far as an organizational standpoint because years past right there have been guys that we've talked about is like you can't get rid of this guy yeah and all of a sudden he's gone and you're like well this team's going to be terrible without him and they would have been terrible with them right but have there been anybody who's been released from other teams anybody who's out there that you look at and you say that's going to be a great addition by the Chicago Bears even with how stacked this team currently is right I'll be honest I haven't seen that many other teams like Cuts they're having out the biggest name I remember seeing today was probably Frank Gore Jr when he got released Buffalo they already have a running back room that's set so like that's not it's not an option for Chicago I don't know like you'd you'd think if you're looking to upgrade certain positions which ones are they still probably the defensive line so they had six defensive ends go on to the roster Montes sweat Dominique Rob or excuse me will start in order Montes sweat Demarcus Walker Daniel Hardy Austin Booker um Daryl Taylor and um who I Dominique Robinson Robinson and then of course the the other the defensive tackles everybody from Dexter to Billings to Chris Williams the guy they just brought in and then um then Pickin so numbers wise they're set right now but if they feel at some point they can upgrade and I don't think it'll be now like the big names are not on the market at this point so like they're just they're not available like names that would be like impact gamechanging names I just feel like they're in a spot where they are going to roll with who they have and that becomes the question of well how do you if your pass rush is not very good again this year like it was last year just in terms of pressing the quarterback what do you do to upgrade it is that something that you have to address via the via the trade deadline the answer is probably going to be yes if they if they feel that they're a contending team this year even if they feel that they're somebody who might be headed towards free agency soon in the last year of a contract kind of like a Montes sweat situation Ryan po shy is no issue doing business at that time of the calendar year in season but I don't think that there's going to be people look at this defensive end group like are these six going to stick I don't I don't think there's going to be any like major additions at that position outside of like how they decided to put these six on the initial 53 how comfortable comfortable do you feel the team is right now when you look at some of the additions they made late round additions right and that's that's what I I'm imploring people to realize right we're talking about six round picks we're talking about late round picks in the future right multiple six that you know you're you're kind of okay moving off of do you feel like the guys that were brought in are derell Taylor who was brought in 21 and a half sack guy over three seasons that's not a bad name to add but do you feel like the Bears feel comfortable where they're at right now entering the season or is there a little bit of nervousness around this team especially on the lines no I I do feel they're a lot more comfortable than they were this time a year ago I remember like talking with people in how Hall and there was this you know this time last year there was a lot of hype around this Bears team and there were people inside the building saying pump the breaks we're not sure we're going to be ready to go first off all the injuries and just like from a talent perspective you know the roster looked a lot different 12 months ago however even with like you know Daryl Taylor and Chris Williams I know it sounds like you know hey six round pick for this guy seventh round you know pick swap effectively for the other guy there's still additions that the Bears felt they that were better than okay let's just comb through all the cuts like you know they were players who they were eyeing as potential cuts on somebody else's roster or you know players they could get on the cheap and using a late day three pick is a smart smart way to go about it um I you know would are those guys better than somebody you can sign off off of cuts off the pool that's now available nearly a thousand players probably because otherwise they wouldn't have done that they would have ended up keeping you know the roster the way it was and signing somebody tomorrow or even later in the week or when there's whenever there's a need because those guys if they don't sign anywhere they just revert to being free streight free agents and they're going to be available until they're not what does that say about a confidence level on that opposite edge of montz sweat right now though right you talk about Demarcus Walker we heard the praise that Austin Booker got on Hard Knocks right and we know but we know that they were looking to go get Matthew Judah when you bring in a guy like derl Taylor when you bring in those guys who can attack the edge do you feel like the Bears feel like that is still a major need on this team I mean let's not be dumb like darell Taylor is not Matthew judon I know Matthew judon 32 years old he's coming off of a um a bicep injury like they're not the same player but it's it's still an aggressive approach to try to find somebody to pair with Montes sweat on the opposite side of that defensive line now what flu said on Saturday is that this is is a position that they anticipate like least that role they said they're going to ride the hot hands so we'll see yeah could it still be Demarcus Walker sure um it's not the idea of well I don't know why you traded for this guy if he's not going to be the starting defensive end opposite montz sweat like he does have production you know two years just about 20 because you know you know his first year he was injured because nine and a half yeah no well first year 2020 didn't play so yeah he didn't play so but he you know 2021 through 2023 three seasons he's got 21 and a half sacks and he started only a handful of those games he's got the production that made it valuable to the Bears to send a draft pick to go get him does that mean he's gonna start I think we're GNA honestly have to wait and see I do kind of look at that situation and think if he can outplay Demarcus Walker and even then like kicking Demarcus Walker inside on certain in certain sub packages is something that they've done before and it's something that they could do again but it's not it's not nearly the upgrade that they would have had like would have had your two Ed rushers set if they were able to land Matthew judon last week it would have been judon and it would have been right Montes sweat and judon could you knew what it was you knew what it was but it it's just not the case right now and we'll see how those things work out but the way they look at it is that they got somebody who is better than anybody in the cut pool at least who they anticipated being Cuts maybe that opinion changes when they see everybody's list but the way they anticipated it um that he's better than any of the other options that they thought they could have gone after potentially his Cuts yeah I think again right the question for most Bears fans is 21 and a half sacks three seasons didn't play the rookie season he's on his fourth year deal is this just a money issue that the Patriots were willing to go we don't need you why wasn't he playing why wasn't he a part of this team what do your thoughts on that no no I'm talking about uh derell Taylor here well I mean didn't they just have an injury yesterday and like they have they had to go out and sign Travis Gibson who was with the Bears for the first year under Ryan poles he was part of the previous regime kind of like you know it sounds like depth it sounds like you know fit too I mean when we talked to derell Taylor the other day I mean he's going from Pete Carrol's defense to earning Mike McDonald's defense and that's a three4 so his role changed now he's going back to being in a 4-3 and he knows what his role is it's a better fit scheme fit for him here so I don't think because he's an R he was a restricted free agent because to explain it just like the easiest terms that because he missed that first full season as a rookie and I believe it was because he was on NFI because it was an injury that he stained while at um while still in college like it didn't give him the normal like rookie you know the rookie rookie timeline to where he would have been as a second round pick like you know going into a contract year in 2024 so like MoneyWise it could have been that I also think just like overall fit in Seattle in this new scheme that there were just other guys that they felt were a better fit and that made him Expendable now I'm sure like after the injury happened other day they probably wouldn't would want their six round pick you know or would would want their you know want their player back instead of just having an extra six round pick to do something with right that's the way it goes yeah sometimes that's the funny part about this time of year sometimes just literally just a second you trade somebody we could have used that guy again and and that is I think for Bears fans right now the the Bears being on the right side of this I mean you look at Camp when you look at the long term the injury bug right now is the best that it's been in the last three years you feel good about it you can make some additions based on that I I think that most Bears fans will be excited by the addition of derell Taylor and at the end of the day having somebody and I love how flu said this I think that because his position is defined right especially with some of the guys that have been brought in a defined position may make that guy be a better player than what we've seen from him in his time in New England so I'm excited about the addition of D rail Taylor as well uh at the end of the day Courtney was there anything from today that surprised you was there anything from today that shocked you or do you think that for the first time in three years this is business as usual this was a quiet cut down day it really was and I mean yeah there were names last couple years like that you wondered about um but really like nothing that like jumped off the page like I've covered cutdown days that have been way more eventful than the ones that we've had in Chicago since 2022 today was as expected most of the names that you see on there are at least the cuts that were released today were either veterans who had been bouncing around for a while who were probably practice squad candidates or udfa rookies that they brought in as Camp bodies and some of that can apply to some vets too but I mean hell think about last year PJ Walker who they signed paid five and a half million dollars for him to come to Chicago to be the number two quarterback and he gets beat out by a division two guy who is now their number two quarterback that was a pretty big story and Alex Leatherwood the guy they had claimed picked up all those guarantees the year before ends up getting cut right before um cut down day happened last year so that was way more eventful than anything we saw today no yeah 100% I I I think the thing that I love about Ryan po the the the ability to say let's take a chance maybe I'll get beat on this maybe I'll get called out for this maybe I'll have a problem with this after it's done but a PJ Washington hey Alex Leatherwood those are names of guys who you were like well if you pick their money up you expect something from and you got nothing from them realistically on this Bears team so I I think that you know his his ability to take a chance it's put us in this position and I'm excited about that and I think that's the that's the best situation for the Bears long term uh but for Courtney Cronin like I said I'm PA the designer I'm excited I think that this is a very unoffendable cutdown day and that's a good thing Bears fans be excited about that uh I do want to let you guys know to hit that like button subscribe to the page leave a five star view y'all know what to do if any news breaks you know you can count on us here at the Chicago be podcast to be on top of that as always man y'all stay safe over there Chicago be down one love peace [Music]