Chicago Bears player still fighting for a roster spot: Joel Iyiegbuniwe, ILB
Speaking of Joel Iyiegbuniwe, he also has to be mentioned here. The reason is that the competition between him and Josh Woods is close, with Iyigbuniwe getting the slight nod. If we look at their snap counts over the last two years, Woods just does not see enough action to warrant keeping him over Iyiegbuniwe. Now, that does not mean that Woods can’t shake this up by exceeding expectations, playing well when given the opportunity and out-performing Iyiegbuniwe.
Not to mention, the team could eliminate both of them with newcomers, Alec Ogletree and Christian Jones coming aboard the roster. If we look at the breakdown of snaps over the last two seasons, Ogletree has not played more than two snaps on special teams (granted for other teams). In fact, the most he’s ever seen is 13 percent of the snap share and that came in 2017 with the Rams.
Christian Jones on the other hand has seen plenty of special teams action. Over his last two seasons, he played on 36 and 26 percent of the Lions’ special teams snaps. Josh Woods versus Joel Iyiegbuniwe is the real matchup here though. Wood played on 60 percent of the special teams snaps last year and 35 percent the year prior. Iyiegbuniwe played on 72 percent of the Bears’ special teams snaps in 2019 and 82 percent last year. This is why he has the edge over Woods.