A quick look at the Chicago Bears current 2022 roster
We are less than three weeks away from the 2022 NFL Draft. As of right now, Ryan Poles has yet to make a splash in free agency outside of trading away Khalil Mack to the Los Angeles Chargers. He attempted to make a couple of big moves by signing Larry Ogunjobi and then Ryan Bates to an offer sheet. Both moves failed for very different reasons. The Chicago Bears were not able to sign Ogunjobi because he couldn’t pass his physical, and the Bills matched Bates’ offer sheet.
It would be unfair to fault Poles for either of these two “failed” moves. When you agree to terms with a player during the “legal tampering” period, teams are unable to require a physical at the time of the agreement. Once that two-day period ended, the Chicago Bears required Ogunjobi to take a physical and he unfortunately failed. There is outside hope that Ogunjobi is still able to sign with the Bears should he pass his physical later this offseason.
The other move of missing out on Ryan Bates has to be frustrating. The team offered him a four-year deal worth $17 million. The first two years were going to be guaranteed at $8.8 million. This was to try and deter the Bills from matching since they were struggling with salary cap space at the time. The move wasn’t enough though and he is now back in Buffalo while the Chicago Bears are still in search of some interior offensive linemen.
A look at what the Chicago Bears roster looks like three weeks before the draft
Here is a quick look at what the roster looks like as of today:
Offense
Quarterbacks: 4
Running Backs: 3
Fullback: 1
Wide Receiver: 6
Tight End: 3
Offensive Linemen: 10
Defense
Defensive Linemen: 7
Linebackers: 12
Defensive Backs: 10
Special Teams
Kicker: 1
Punter: 1
Long Snapper: 1
This leaves the Chicago Bears with 27 offensive players, 29 defensive players and three special teams players for a total roster size of 59. Tavon Young hasn’t been officially signed yet and therefore he would make it an even 60 players.
With six draft picks, that puts the team at 66. This leaves roughly 24 openings for the Chicago Bears training camp this summer. We can expect to see plenty of undrafted free agents brought in to fill out the roster and also more free agent signings. In fact, the team just signed two other players last week who are on the active roster in Matt Adams (LB) and Ryan Griffin (TE).