Chicago Bears: 53-man roster prediction following the draft

Inside Linebackers

Danny Trevathan, Roquan Smith, Josh Woods, Joel Iyiegbuniwe (4)

Moving to the inside we find another position that dealt with injuries last year. Danny Trevathan only played in nine games last year before going down with an elbow injury. He was rumored to be able to return should the Chicago Bears make the playoffs. Unfortunately, we will never know if that would have happened since the team fell short at only 8-8 on the year.

Roquan Smith missed some time with an undisclosed personal reason. Some thought it may have been mental health issues. Reports came out later that was not the case and Smith found his groove throughout the back half of the year. It will be imperative that these two stay relatively healthy this season for the team to succeed.

The backups on the roster are not as impressive now that Nick Kwiatkoski is gone. Kwiatkoski is now going to start for the Las Vegas Raiders. Keeping Trevathan over Kwiatkoski was the right move in my opinion, but losing him as a depth piece still hurts. Kevin Pierre-Louis also performed admirably as last year’s backup, but he too has moved on to a new team.

Instead, the Chicago Bears will be counting on Josh Woods and Joel Iyiegbuniwe to fill in should Trevathan or Smith need a breather, or worse get injured. I was not keen on Pierre-Louis last year as being a short-term starter but he surprised me. One of these two could easily do the same this season.