The Chicago Bears Injured Reserve Review: Who’s Who on IR

The Bears have four players on injured reserve, after final cuts, who are no longer with the team. They are Lamarr Houston, Ka’Deem Carey, Connor Shaw and Rueben Randle.

It was obvious that Shaw wasn’t going to make the team after his performance against the Browns in the final preseason game. He suffered a hamstring injury in that game and was placed on injured reserve during the final cut down period.

Shaw’s stay there was short, however, as the Bears provided him with an injury settlement and let him go. Don’t expect to see him back unless disaster strikes Chicago’s quarterback position and all three of the Bears current quarterbacks get hurt.

Just yesterday, the Bears parted with Rueben Randle after placing him on IR earlier in the preseason.  It was unlikely he was going to be a contributor despite the Bears health issues at wide receiver.

Lamarr Houston was a player that could just never get it right in Chicago. When he was healthy, he was good but his biggest problem was staying on the field. After two consecutive seasons on injured reserve with knee injuries, people thought that he would have to have a strong preseason to make it onto the active roster. He did have a good preseason but got hurt in the Bears final game against Cleveland.

In all reality, he was probably not going to get cut because he would have left the Bears with a huge cap hit.

After letting Houston go, the Bears are now stuck with a $2,380,000 cap charge over the next two years. That’s respectable. Now the Bears don’t have to worry about hanging onto him because of the money they have to pay him.

It was a rough ending to a sad career in Chicago for Houston but both sides are better off.

Finally, the Bears waived running back Ka’Deem Carey after placing him on injured reserve with a wrist injury that required surgery. The Bears were stacked at running back so it’s possible that Carey may not have made the roster. This might bode well for Carey. After he recovers from surgery Carey should be able to find a backup role with another team that is looking for a running back.

In looking at Carey’s contract, he was due to be a free agent at the end of this season. The cap hit the Bears will take isn’t large and is just $110,845.

That’s a cap hit the Bears can absorb.