We have six more rosters to analyze before training camp officially opens for the Chicago Bears, so let’s get into it with two today, two Saturday, and two on Sunday.
Today we are going to look at my roster and see where it’s at. A couple of years ago, I decided to rip my team to shreds and rebuild from the ground up completely through the draft. It’s been a fun, yet difficult exercise, and the team is starting to come into form, but it’s been multiple seasons of seriously losing records.
My team was
dominant early in this league, going to the first four title games and winning two of them. The team began to age and was barely clinging to being a playoff team. In year six, I made the playoffs as the last seed and went on a Cinderella run to win my 3rd title. I thought the timing was perfect to start fresh.
I traded every player on my roster, literally every single one. I acquired a huge amount of draft capital over several years and have been working towards putting together what I hope is a young, dominant core that can eventually dominate, but we aren’t there yet.
Let’s take a look at the roster:
Let’s break down the roster, starting with the QB room. This room might be in excellent shape, or it might be a disaster. Will Jayden Daniels’ 2025 season be the norm, or will it be 2024? Will Michael Penix figure it out? Is Tyler Shough on his way to becoming a legit NFL QB, or did he just have a handful of good games? We will learn a lot about this room this season and see if it’s on strong footing or if it’s problematic.
The running back room has had some misses. Johnathan Brooks’ injury was crippling to this room, and Kaleb Johnson, as of right now, appears to be an epic bust. RJ Harvey was pretty good last year but seems like he’s going to be losing carries, not gaining them. Can Jeremiyah Love stabilize this room? There are some other young backs that might be able to become contributors, but it’s still more wait and see here.
The WR room is slowly coming together. Tet McMillan had a nice rookie season, and Alec Pierce appears to be on his way. Can Marvin Harrison Jr become the force we all expected him to be? If he’s a miss, that’s a crushing blow to the rebuild. Keon Coleman certainly hasn’t helped either. There are a few other decent young pieces here but not too many with high-end regular starter capabilities.
The tight end room already might be the best one in the league. Brock Bowers is a force. Gadsen looks like the real deal, and Dalton Kincaid and Mason Taylor as TE3 and TE4 is certainly some decent depth.
Moving over to the defensive side of the ball, the DT room has a nice starting duo of Murphy and Kancey, and Newton has shown some skills as well. Will Aaron Donald come back? If so, that certainly raises the bar in this room as well.
In the edge room, Verse is already showing to be a legit fantasy threat; hopefully he won’t draw too much attention in Cleveland. Can Carter and/or Green become legit Edges that score points? If so, this room should settle in nicely, but if they struggle, it’ll be looking for a second-every-week starter.
The linebacker room has a hilarious amount of players in it currently, but I do love me some linebackers. I love both Hill and Allen as rookies, and Cooper, Jihaad Campbell, and Jack Campbell all look the part. You can only start 4, so I will certainly be looking to make some trades here as we approach the season.
At CB, I’m hoping I have the cheat code. We accumulate all stats for players, so if Hunter is a full-time CB and plays WR part-time, he will get points for both as a starting CB. If he can grab the usual 10 or 11 points from a CB and throw in 6 or 7 offensive points a game, Hunter could score up near 20 points a game, which will lap the competition. We will see if it comes together for him.
The safety room is in solid shape right now. It has some young players who are already capable of starting and a couple of developmental guys as well, plus both Bears safeties to boot.
The taxi squad is fairly talented as they go at this point in the season. Green is a dart throw; if the Giants don’t get healthy at WR, Fields might see time this year, Moore could be a useful piece in Detroit, Elarms-Orr has already been rumored to push for a starting job, and Haulcy has a pretty good chance to be decent in Indy’s defensive scheme.
I’m curious to see how this team comes together this year. I think it has a shot at the playoffs, but I think it might fall short again. But if Jayden Daniels plays like 2024, Love and one of the other RBs become consistent point scorers, and if Harrison takes a step forward, this team could be really strong this year. The defense should score points; it’s just a matter of finding the right combination of players on offense.
