5 Chicago Bears storylines to follow after the bye

3. Will Chicago Bears continue to dig into practice squads

It is obvious that Ryan Poles does not like many of the Ryan Pace players. He gutted the roster, and even guys like Angelo Blackson have fallen out of favor quickly after being in from the past regime.

Beyond that, Poles has not been afraid to go dumpster diving to find replacements, as he is taking shots with the limited resources he inherited. Think of Armon Watts, who has beaten Angelo Blackson out and is now starting for the Chicago Bears. Heck, he has been better than Justin Jones in the last month.

Josh Blackwell was a UDFA claimed off the Eagles practice squad, and he plays special teams and had a nice defensive debut Sunday. Alex Leatherwood should start.

Beyond that, even names such as Taco Charlton and Andrew Brown have had to slide into roles. Both players were on other teams’ practice squads about a month ago, now both are rotating in on the Chicago Bears defensive line.

Injuries led to this for the most part, but on the flip side, it is something the team may consider down the stretch run. They can pluck someone off of any team’s practice squad, get three weeks to look at them, and then decide if they have anything or not. If Poles sees any player he even has the smallest excitement over, now is the time to pluck him from another team. Something tells me that will happen again.