Learning fullback position leads undrafted rookie Jake Tonges to spot on Chicago Bears’ roster

LAKE FOREST – Jake Tonges’ parents went to Bears preseason games at Seattle and at Cleveland in recent weeks.

In Tonges’ words: “They weren’t sure if they were going to be my last games playing.”

The undrafted rookie tight end and fullback out of California made the Bears’ 53-man roster Tuesday. The first person he called was his mom. The Tonges family is about to have a busy fall. Their son’s not done playing yet.

There was a lot of that going around Tuesday at Halas Hall and across the NFL. Teams trimmed their rosters down to 53 players by 3 p.m. Tuesday. Bears head coach Matt Eberflus and general manager Ryan Poles were hard at work over the last few days deciding who to cut and who to keep.

For the Bears, 13 rookies remain on the final roster, including three undrafted rookies. Tonges, cornerback Jaylon Jones out of Ole Miss and linebacker Jack Sanborn out of Wisconsin all went undrafted, but nabbed spots on the team. The Bears kept all 11 of their draft picks. Ten are on the active roster and one, center Doug Kramer, is on injured reserve.

In less than half a year as GM, Poles has significantly altered the roster. The current 53-man roster has only 22 players who were signed or drafted by former GM Ryan Pace.

Tonges is listed on the roster as a fullback, but he will play both fullback and tight end. The Bears released tight end James O’Shaughnessy with an illness designation, leaving Cole Kmet and Ryan Griffin as the only players on the roster listed at the tight end position.

Tonges came to Chicago out of Cal expecting to play tight end, but the Bears coaches soon saw something in his blocking ability that piqued their interest. The team’s new offense utilizes a fullback. While the Bears brought in free agent Khari Blasingame to play that role, adding the position also necessitates having a backup who can play it if needed.

During OTAs, the coaches told Tonges they thought fullback might be his best route to the roster.

“That turned out to be true,” Tonges said.

Tonges believes the “F” tight end position and the fullback position have a lot of similarities, which has made that transition smooth for him.

“It’s just more to the offense that you have to worry about,” Tonges said. “It’s a whole different personnel that we use. You could, technically, put any of the tight ends in that F spot, but obviously you don’t get that many reps at it and getting these reps over the last however many months has been really good.”

Eberflus said Tonges has done a good job showing he can play both positions. His spot on the roster indicates as much.

[ Here is the Chicago Bears’ initial 53-man roster for 2022 ]

The practice squad: If teams across the league want to claim a player that another team waived on Tuesday, they have until noon Wednesday to put in a claim. The Bears are currently seventh on the waiver wire order.

Once teams simultaneously receive the waiver results Wednesday afternoon, they may begin assembling their practice squads. Teams are allowed to sign an additional 16 players to the practice squad. Up to six of those practice squad players can be veterans with an unlimited amount of experience.

Injury outlook: Receiver N’Keal Harry injured his ankle during training camp and had surgery. He is expected to be out until at least early October, according to reports. Harry will most likely be placed on injured reserve Wednesday. Players who make the 53-man roster and then go on IR are eligible to return after four games.

Players who go immediately to IR before the 53-man roster is released, such as cornerback Tavon Young, must remain out for the entire season. The Bears announced Young was going on IR, but it was apparently news to the 28-year-old cornerback. Young wrote on Twitter that, “I don’t even know where that came from??” in reference to going on IR. The tweet has since been deleted. Young had not practiced in several weeks and didn’t appear in any of the Bears’ three preseason games.

The team held a short, relatively light practice with only the players on the 53-man roster. Several players did not participate in practice, including Harry, safety Jaquan Brisker, receiver Velus Jones Jr., receiver Byron Pringle, cornerback Jaylon Johnson, center Lucas Patrick and receiver Tajae Sharpe.

The Bears had only three available receivers in practice Tuesday.

“Obviously, it doesn’t look good out there, we had some guys that were out,” Eberflus said. “We only had three or four guys out there today, but those guys are all – we feel good where they are in terms of coming back and being available to us shortly.”

Eberflus said he wouldn’t address injuries until the first injury report must be released on Sept. 7.