NEWSLETTER
The post-mini-camp roster churn is upon us:
#Bears roster moves:
We have waived the following players:
K, Redford Jones
K, John Baron II
DB, Adarius Pickett
DE, Lawrence MarshallWe have signed the following college free agents:
OL, Tommy Doles
DE, Jalen Dalton— Chicago Bears (@BearsPR) May 5, 2019
Because one can never have too many bodies battling at the line of scrimmage, you can understand why the Chicago Bears signed offensive lineman Tommy Doles and defensive end Jalen Dalton shortly after the weekend’s mini-camp concluded.
Dalton is an intriguing addition to the group, and not just because he is now reunited with Bears quarterback Mitch Trubisky, who was his teammate at North Carolina in 2015 and 2016. As a defensive tackle at UNC, Dalton collected 92 tackles, 6.5 sacks, and 15 tackles-for-loss in 37 games. Dalton was Rivals.com’s top-rated high school football prospect in North Carolina and checked in as a top-100 player nationally by Rivals (62nd overall) and ESPN (64th). There is some real prospect pedigree here, which makes him worth keeping tabs on as the offseason training program rolls on.
Doles played his college ball at Northwestern, where he spent the last three seasons as the Wildcats’ starting right guard. In addition to earning All-Big Ten academic honors in each of the last three years, Doles was Consensus Third-team All-Big Ten as a junior in 2017 and named Honorable Mention All-Big Ten by the conference’s coaches and media. Like Dalton, Doles has a prospect past worth digging into. Rivals.com listed Doles as a three-star recruit, while 247Sports listed him as Michigan’s second highest-rated offensive lineman and the state’s 12th best prospect overall.
Rather than signing any of the kickers who were in town for the weekend of competition, the Bears decided to add some depth elsewhere on the roster. And that’s perfectly fine. Depth on either side of the line of scrimmage can deteriorate quickly without notice, so having waves of options behind starters (and even the projected depth) is a good thing.
