NEWSLETTER
One of my favorite parts of the football calendar year is officially under way.
That stretch on the calendar between the start of May and some point in July when NFL rosters are fluid and the churn never seems to stop is oddly fascinating to me. Introducing new names into my lexicon keeps me on my toes. And when I get to share and discuss those names when they join the Bears, it gives us an opportunity to get a leg up on potential training camp sleepers.
With that being said, we’ve got some newbies on the roster. Chicago’s football team made it official with a handful of signings after their rookie minicamp weekend camp to a close:
- D’Anthony Jones, EDGE: The Bears didn’t take any defensive end/edge defenders during the 2023 NFL Draft. But it’s not like they’d just sit on their hands between now and when training camp opened its doors. Jones earned first-team All-AAC honors after racking up 8 sacks in 13 games for the University of Houston last year.
- Josh Lugg, OL: Another UDFA addition for the trenches. This time it is on the offensive line of the ball where the team adds Lugg, a four-year who played collegiately at Notre Dame. Lugg has experience at right guard and right tackle, which is the type of versatility teams value from depth offensive linemen. We’ll keep an eye on Lugg and how he is deployed this spring and summer.
- Bralen Trahan, Safety: Trahan played his college ball at Louisiana, which is where Charles “Peanut” Tillman was a star. In his final season at Louisiana, Trahan set a career-high with 78 tackles and tied a career-best with 4 interceptions. There’s no such thing as having too many defensive backs, so Trahan’s arrival is we.come.
- Stephen Carlson, TE: We discussed this newbie’s arrival earlier and with a little more depth:
Maybe someone from this group will make a splash at upcoming offseason training activities. Perhaps someone makes it to training camp and shows out at Halas Hall this summer. But before we get to that point, just know that someone from this group could return to the waiver wire. Heck, the Bears cut three UDFA signings from last week to make room for the new guys. So my apologies if you got too attached to OL Nick Amoah, S Justin Broiles, or TE Damien Caffrey. That is the nature of the beast in the NFL. And especially at a time of year when teams burn through the bottom halves of rosters like it’s nobody’s business.
