The Chicago Bears made a couple of roster moves, adding quarterback Tim Boyle and defensive lineman Andrew Brown to the active roster. While they are not significant names, the Bears signed them from a different team’s practice squad. This means that they will be guaranteed three weeks of active roster salary from the Bears.
Chicago Bears sign Tim Boyle and Andrew Brown
In the case of Tim Boyle, it means the team is likely to keep three quarterbacks on the roster for the next month. That has to do with the injury to Justin Fields, but also Trevor Siemian. Because neither is a lock to be healthy for Sunday, the team felt they needed another option at quarterback.
This says a lot about where the team stands on Nathan Peterman. They could have easily signed Peterman to their active roster, but they kept him on the practice squad. Boyle getting signed from a different team’s practice squad, then getting the chance to play over Peterman shows that they have no faith in Peterman being able to start, and would rather try someone who has not seen the playbook.
Peterman went to Pitt, and Luke Getsy is from Pittsburgh, and started his college career at Pitt, before transferring to Akron. Getsy hired Andrew Janocko, another Pittsburgh native who went to Pitt.
It is very likely these two have known Peterman for some time, and they have a long-term relationship. Not to say that Getsy can just dedicate a roster spot to a buddy, but Getsy and Janocko probably believe that Peterman speaks the same language as them, and sees things similarly to them. The three of them can relate to each other.
Peterman can relay messages from them to the other quarterbacks, and Peterman can help in the. meeting rooms, like he is another coach. Lastly, Peterman can probably run the scout team very well.
However, while there are benefits that Peterman brings that make a practice squad spot worthwhile, they would much rather keep him as a name in the meeting room, and on the scout field.
For Andrew Brown, it is hard not to think of Angelo Blackson. Blackson has seen his snaps drop off for the last month, but the last two weeks were drastic. The team inherited from Ryan Pace, they started him, and now they seem to be ready to move on from him. Does Andrew Brown come in fresh off of another team’s practice squad and steal snaps from Blackson? Could Blackson be inactive on Sunday?