Chicago Bears Stock Down: Kevin Toliver, Deiondre’ Hall, Doran Grant

Three Chicago Bears secondary players came in with a chance to lock down a roster spot. None made improvements on their chances

Two questions surrounding the back end of the Chicago Bears secondary have emerged over the past few weeks. At cornerback, who will be the backup outside player behind Prince Amukamara and Kyle Fuller? At safety, the question is where or not they will carry four or five safeties?

Cornerback

At cornerback, Marcus Cooper held down the role last season and came into this year with the job as well. However, he put out a poor performance in Week One and was sidelined in Week Two of the preseason.

This opened the door for Doran Grant and Kevin Toliver. The Chicago Bears started Bryce Callahan on the outside and moved Cre’Von Leblanc to the slot with Cooper sidelined rather than starting Grant or Toliver. This tends to tell you where the team felt on these two heading in.

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It did not get much better from there. Grant gave up a pass interference as well as a slew of short passing receptions. Kevin Toliver was the victim of a touchdown and a few big receptions. The Courtland Sutton touchdown may not be looked like his fault as there was a miscommunication and it is hard to tell what the coverage is. Still, none of this is positive momentum for Toliver, despite a nice stick in run defense.

The fact of the matter is that despite getting torched against Cincinnati, Cooper could be looked at as a winner.

Safety

One way in which Cooper could lose his job is if the Chicago Bears keep a fifth safety rather than a sixth cornerback. Sherick McManis tends to make the roster as a sixth cornerback and special teams player by nature.

He would not be the backup outside cornerback, but if Callahan did slide outside and LeBlanc into the slot, they would have their backup outside cornerback on the roster. From there, they could make a corresponding move.

The fifth safety in which the Chicago Bears would keep would likely be Deiondre’ Hall. Eddie Jackson, Adrian Amos, and Deon Bush are locked in, and all indications are that DeAndre Houston-Carson is ahead of Hall.

Still, Hall has special teams prowess and has been experimented with at cornerback in the past. In a pinch, he could be an option to fill that depth.

So, with his big chance to make noise in the same degree as Toliver and Grant, he made an egregious error that led to a personal foul penalty in the punt game.

As mentioned, he has special teams prowess. However, if the team cannot trust him on that unit without getting a penalty, he has no purpose on the roster.

Now, Hall is suspended for the first game of the season for testing positive for a banned substance. Hall has already had a small off of the field issue and with penalties on the field, it just seems as though he struggles to make good mistakes.

The Chicago Bears had three options to step in and make Marcus Cooper expendable. All three struck out in their chances. We will see how the Chicago Bears handle this situation moving forward.