The Chicago Bears have taken their first steps toward building the 90-man roster they will take to Bourbonnais for training camp in 2020.
Here is a look at the nine players the team has signed to reserve/future contracts:
The #Bears sign the following players to Reserve/Future contracts:
OL, Dino Boyd
DB, Xavier Crawford
WR, Reggie Davis
DB, Stephen Denmark
WR, Thomas Ives
OL, Sam Mustipher
TE, Dax Raymond
LB, James Vaughters
WR, Alex Wesley— Chicago Bears (@BearsPR) December 30, 2019
If these names look familiar to you, it is probably because of your familiarity with the Bears’ 10-player practice squad. This group included two offensive linemen (Dino Boyd, Sam Mustipher), three wide receivers (Reggie Davis, Thomas Ives, Alex Wesley), two cornerbacks (Xavier Crawford, Stephen Denmark), one tight end (Dax Raymond), and an outside linebacker/edge defender (James Vaughters).
The only player from the squad who was not signed to a reserve/futures contract with this group is quarterback Tyler Bray.
Players who sign reserve/future contracts now might not immediately catch your eye, but oftentimes players who are signed to these deals now pop up on the active roster at some point in the year to come. In essence, signing players to these types of contracts now is a way to stockpile young players who are on the cusp of being part of your team’s usable depth in the not-too-distant future. Players who qualify for these contracts are ones who weren’t on the active roster of a team at the end of the regular season, such as those who were on the team’s practice squad (or one of the practice squads of the 31 other teams around the league). It makes sense, then, that the Bears retained these nine guys as soon as the season concluded.
So, you *could* say the Bears’ 2020 roster is already beginning to take shape.