Chicago Bears: Why Matt Nagy is designed for no preseason
Matt Nagy and the Chicago Bears can make this work
While the Chicago Bears head coach Matt Nagy wanted to play his starters this year, mostly due to the quarterback competition he has in front of him, he was hired in 2018 based on his views. One of those views was that he could prepare his football team without using his primary players during the preseason in the 2018 and 2019 NFL season.
Matt Nagy will have no choice but not to play any single players this year since it’s canceled if there was ever a time to trust Matt Nagy in his offseason plan that time would be now. The scouting department and Matt Nagy are going to have to work quickly to downsize the team to 80 players by the start of regular training camp.
The rookies have all reported already, and all the draft picks are signed. The next step will be cutting ties with 10 players that won’t have the chance to show what they have. By my count on the Chicago Bears website they have:
- 18 Defensive backs
- 2 Defensive ends
- 3 Defensive linemen
- 4 Defensive tackles
- 2 Kickers
- 15 Linebackers (edge and off-ball)
- 1 Long snapper
- 1 Nose tackle
- 15 Offensive linemen
- 1 Punter
- 3 Quarterbacks
- 5 Running backs
- 9 Tight ends
- 12 Wide receivers
Oddly that’s 91 players. 20 players listed are rookies, and nine are second-year players. I would expect 10 or 11 of those players to be released to come from those two groups. The website isn’t always accurate, so some or all could already be off the roster.
The Chicago Bears can use this early arrival of the rookies to help make their decision on who stays and who goes. There might be a surprise vet released as well, but I don’t know if this is the year that the Chicago Bears get that bold.
Next. Bears advantage to not having preseason. dark
The NFL season sure looks like a full go with more teams coming out with fan protocol and testing regiments around the league coming out.