The Bears continue to shift the roster around heading into opening day.
Earlier on Tuesday, the Bears released their depth chart for the start of the season. As of late Tuesday night, all of that can be thrown out of the window as the Bears threw everyone a curve ball. In a surprising move, the Bears released offensive tackle Jonathan Scott. He has been replaced with tight end Kyle Adams who was originally let go on Monday to make room for journeyman Dante Rosario.
That move was made because the Bears needed an extra pass catching tight end behind Martellus Bennett. Steve Maneri who is listed as the backup is mostly a blocking tight end, as was Adams. So the question now is why did the Bears make this move? One reason could be the knee injury that plagued Scott throughout the summer and kept him out of the entire preseason.
He has only seen limited action in practice in recent days. Could it be that the Bears were tired of waiting for his knee to heal? There is also buzz around Halas Hall that the Marc Trestman had wanted four tight ends on the active roster anyway. The main reason for this is to have an H-back type of player that can fill-in in the event that fullback Tony Fiammetta is benched, injured, etc.
Kyle Adams has been used in this role before, it’s how he made the active roster during the Lovie Smith era. Could this be a contingency plan of sorts for Marc Trestman? Bringing Adams back into the fold does give the Bears an extra body at the tight end position to give Rosario time to learn the offensive scheme. Could this have been a financial decision? Scott’s contract was worth $715,000. And with the Bears being short on cap space, they’ll save every dollar that they can. Especially since a good chunk of the roster will be free agents at season’s end. In those cases it’s never too early to start saving.
Do the Bears believe that Eben Britton can be a better swing tackle than Scott? Considering that this position now falls into Britton’s hands, we should get that answer in the very near future. The biggest question of all is…. would the Bears ever bring Scott back? If history teaches us anything, it teaches us that the grind of an NFL season is full of injuries. On top of that, players can also get cut during the season without warning, and for a variety of reasons.
There also a chance that he can be re-signed when the roster expands to 90 players again next offseason. You can never say never in this league. The final question is…. could Scott land with another team? First, his knee would have to be 100-percent before he can sign with any franchise. Once that happens, the possibilities are endless especially if a team could use an offensive tackle.
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