Chicago Bears: Riley Ridley should be active versus the Lions

We are one day away from Thanksgiving and also a football game that once again pits the Chicago Bears versus the Detroit Lions. With a few injuries to the offensive skill position players, Riley Ridley should be active for the first time.

Ryan Pace cannot be happy with the outcome he has seen from his 2019 NFL Draft class. As of now, the Chicago Bears are only utilizing David Montgomery. Duke Shelley has barely played and the rest of the picks, including Riley Ridley, have yet to see a single snap. In fact, the Bears rookie draft class has seen the fewest snaps among other draft classes in the NFL.

The Bears are dealing with injuries this week to Ben Braunecker and Taylor Gabriel. Both sustained concussions in the New York Giants game last Sunday. This is Gabriel’s second concussion of the season which makes me wonder how long he will take to clear the concussion protocol this time. With Gabriel missing time, Javon Wims should see a bump up in snaps this week.

When Gabriel was out earlier this year, Wims snap share jumped up to 94 and 93 percent. He caught four of six targets for 56 yards combined during those two games. Riley Ridley was still not active during those two games, but he should be active for Thanksgiving.

The tight end group has been depleted by injury and I would not be shocked if Cordarrelle Patterson sees a role shift in this game and runs some of the tight end routes. I think we see a lot of Jesper Horsted and Patterson in that role while J.P. Holtz continues to be the H-Back tight end and Bradley Sowell, assuming he is active, continues to be an inline blocking tight end.

With these injuries, the Chicago Bears have to promote Riley Ridley for the first time this season, right? Well, it would not shock me if they did not promote him to the active roster, but why? Why would they make that move? Are they worried he will showcase himself and then they cannot send him back down to the practice squad? Maybe he cannot handle special teams duties.

These are all valid reasons, but I do not care at this point. At this point, the Bears need to see what their fourth-round draft pick can offer. The Bears need to give the kid an opportunity here. Ridley should be able to take over the Javon Wims role. Wims saw very few snaps on special teams, however, he saw 10 to 30 percent of the offensive snaps in games Taylor Gabriel was healthy.

Maybe Ridley can spark the offense a little. He is supposed to be a strong route runner. Why draft him if you are never going to use him? Throwing him to the wolves in 2020 without any experience this year would be poor management by Ryan Pace and Matt Nagy. Give the kid a chance and let him play versus the Lions on Thanksgiving.