Bear Digest

Bears Lose Another Fourth Tight End and Bring in Yet Another

Bears Injury Report: The Bears put fourth tight end Tommy Sweeney on injured reserve as they can't keep the backups at this position healthy, on the roster or on the practice squad.

Gene Chamberlain

Former Packers practice squad tight end Joel Wilson makes a catch against the Browns in preseason. Wilson is now a Bears TE.
Former Packers practice squad tight end Joel Wilson makes a catch against the Browns in preseason. Wilson is now a Bears TE. / Ken Blaze-Imagn Images
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It's becoming every bit the Bears jinx this year that long snapper is.

The fourth Bears tight end is not a spot they seem to be able to keep around for long.

First, they had rookie Brenden Bates stolen off of their practice squad. Then they activated Stephen Carlson from the practice squad to be on the 53-man roster and he suffered shoulder injury to go on IR. Teagan Quitoriano, signed to the practice squad as a potential fourth tight end, was plucked by the Texans, his former team.

Now, practice squad tight end Tommy Sweeney has been put on injured reserve.  The  Bears have signed tight end Joel Wilson as a replacement.

Wilson is a 6-foot-4, 242-pound tight end from Central Michigan who was on the practice squad for the Giants and was waived Oct. 1. He had been with the Packers in the offseason but was released with final roster cutdowns, and had been with Buffalo and New Orleans last year. The Bills had him on the practice squad and the Saints briefly had him on the offseason roster. So he has never appeared in an NFL game.

So it would appear fourth tight end has taken the lead over long snapper as a problem area, although they have actually merged the two by using tight end Cole Kmet as a long snapper.

Beyond losing another practice squad tight end, the injury situation improved somewhat Thursday for the team.

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Tackle Larry Borom, running back Travis Homer, defensive end Zacch Pickens and cornerback Terell Smith all went through full practices as they come back from injuries. They all had been limited on Wednesday in practice. Edge rusher Jake Martin went through a second straight full practice this week as he tries to come back from a toe injury off of IR. Long snapper Scott Daly (knee) also went through a second straight full practice.
In the secondary, the situation remained the same, otherwise.
Safety Jaquan Brisker (concussion) and slot cornerback Kyler Gordon (hamstring) did not practice, like on Wednesday. Cornerback Tyrique Stevenson (calf) was limited and had been limited on Wednesday, as well.
They gave tight end Marcedes Lewis a veteran's day off.

Twitter: BearsOnSI

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Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

BearDigest.com publisher Gene Chamberlain has covered the Chicago Bears full time as a beat writer since 1994 and prior to this on a part-time basis for 10 years. He covered the Bears as a beat writer for Suburban Chicago Newspapers, the Daily Southtown, Copley News Service and has been a contributor for the Daily Herald, the Associated Press, Bear Report, CBS Sports.com and The Sporting News. He also has worked a prep sports writer for Tribune Newspapers and Sun-Times newspapers.