Chicago Bears Release Craig Steltz

Brace Hemmelgarn-USA TODAY Sports

The Bears released safety Craig Steltz yesterday. Steltz had been with the Bears since 2008 as primarily a special teams player but he occasionally filled in at safety with disastrous results. In his one start last year against the Vikings, Steltz had a -5.5 grade from Pro Football Focus which was the lowest single game grade for any Bear last season. I was surprised when the Bears re-signed Steltz to a one-year deal this offseason, but figured it was due to his strong special teams play.  Steltz missed most of the offseason and training camp with a groin injury but made his debut in Friday’s loss to the Seahawks. The former 4th round pick in the ’08 draft played in 77 games with the Bears over the last 6 years, starting 7 games and finishing his Bears career with 73 tackles, 1 sack, 1 interception, and 2 forced fumbles. The Bears still need to make two more cuts before this afternoon to reach the 75 man roster limit.

In other NFL roster new, recently released QB Jordan Palmer has signed with the Buffalo Bills. There is certainly an opportunity for Palmer to stick as a backup with the Bills since he would just need to beat out Jeff Tuel or Thad Lewis, but the Bills come to Chicago in week 1 of the regular season so they might just be trying to pick Palmer’s brain on the Bears game plan. Hopefully that’s not all it is, since Palmer seems like a good guy and I am rooting for him to catch on with another team. I will have more updates on the Bears cuts later today, so check back soon.