Chicago Bears waive 9 players ahead of Tuesday’s 53-man roster deadline

The Chicago Bears moved one step closer to finalizing their 53-man roster. On Monday, the team waived nine players.

The Bears had already released three players over the weekend, so Monday’s moves bring their roster down to 78 players as of Monday afternoon. The team must cut it to 53 players by 3 p.m. Tuesday.

Take a look at Shaw Local’s complete 53-man roster projection here.

On Monday, the team released guard Ja’Tyre Carter, guard Jerome Carvin, defensive tackle Michael Dwumfour, receiver Peter LeBlanc, defensive tackle Jaylon Hutchings, receiver John Jackson, safety Quindell Johnson, linebacker Paul Moala and linebacker Javin White.

The most notable name on that list was Carter, who the Bears drafted with a seventh-round pick out of Southern University in 2022. None of the other eight players were drafted by general manager Ryan Poles.

Jackson, an undrafted rookie receiver out of Nevada, is close buddies with quarterback Caleb Williams. The two played together at USC before Jackson transferred to Nevada.

The Bears will have to part with 25 more players by Tuesday afternoon.

NFLPA vetoes new third-QB rule

The NFL Players Association reportedly has vetoed the league’s new third-quarterback rule. The new rule would have allowed teams to keep their emergency third quarterback on the practice squad and to elevate QBs to the active roster an unlimited number of times during the season. Per the NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero, the NFLPA has nixed that plan.

Instead, the league will revert back to the 2023 rule. Under last season’s rules, a team could activate a third quarterback during the course of a game if both the starting quarterback and the backup suffered injuries – but only if the third quarterback was on the 53-man roster (not the practice squad).

In general, teams are allowed to elevate two players from the practice squad to the active roster every week, but a player may be elevated only three times per season before the team must sign him to the active roster. The unlimited elevations for a quarterback would’ve been a special exception.

The NFLPA likely vetoed the new rule because it could put third-string QBs in the awkward spot of being paid a significantly lower salary on the practice squad, while essentially being on the active roster.

The last-minute rule change could change the calculus for some teams debating whether to keep two or three quarterbacks on the active roster this week.