Bears Waive Paul Lasike
- The Bears waived fullback Paul Lasike, as Brad Biggs of the Chicago Tribune tweets. Lasike saw 14 snaps in Week 1 and just five snaps on Monday night.
Bears’ Eddie Goldman Out Four Weeks
On the heels of an embarrassing loss to the Eagles on Monday, the hits keep coming for the 0-2 Bears. The latest blow: Nose tackle Eddie Goldman will miss at least four weeks with a high ankle sprain, according to Rich Campbell of the Chicago Tribune (Twitter link). The Bears hope to have Goldman back for their Week 7 trip to Lambeau Field, Campbell adds.
Goldman joins quarterback Jay Cutler and two other defenders – linebackers Lamarr Houston and Danny Trevathan – as integral Bears who went down in the team’s 29-14 defeat. Cutler’s thumb injury doesn’t appear catastrophic, but Houston is done for the year with a torn ACL and Trevathan will miss time with his own thumb issue.
The Bears revamped their defense during the offseason and entered the year counting on significant production from Houston, Trevathan and Goldman. Of course, Chicago could still receive notable contributions from Trevathan, an ex-Bronco, and Goldman during truncated seasons.
Goldman joined the Bears last year as a second-round pick from Florida State and logged 12 starts in 15 appearances, totaling 22 tackles and an impressive 4.5 sacks along the way. His overall output also earned plaudits from Pro Football Focus. Goldman began 2016 with back-to-back starts and another half-sack. Third-year man Will Sutton is likely to take Goldman’s starting spot for the Bears, who will face the Cowboys, Lions, Colts and Jaguars over the next four weeks.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Bears’ Lamarr Houston Done For Season
The Bears’ worst fears were confirmed by an MRI today. Lamarr Houston has suffered a torn ACL and will be placed on season-ending IR, Mike Garafolo of NFL.com tweets. 
[RELATED: Thumb Injury For Danny Trevathan]
Houston is no stranger to ACL tears as he also suffered one in 2014. Of course, Houston suffered that injury while celebrating a sack in the midst of the Bears’ blowout loss at the hands of the Patriots. That ACL tear cost Houston the final eight games of the season and this latest setback will shut him down after just two contests.
Houston spent the first four years of his career with the Raiders before signing a five-year, $35MM deal with the Bears prior to the 2014 season. There are two more years on Houston’s deal beyond 2016, but the Bears can clear most of that money from the books by cutting him prior to June 1st. If released, Houston will carry just $1.98MM in dead money versus $5MM+ in cap savings.
Last year, Houston appeared in all 16 games for the Bears, racking up 42 tackles and a career-high eight sacks.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Bears’ Trevathan, Houston Suffer Injuries
The Bears got some good news today when they learned that quarterback Jay Cutler only suffered a sprain and not a fracture in his thumb. However, the news isn’t so good when it comes to their front seven. Linebackers Danny Trevathan and Lamarr Houston both suffered serious injuries on Sunday, coach John Fox told reporters today. 
Trevathan will have surgery for a thumb injury, though it is not a season-ender (Twitter link via Mike Garafolo of NFL.com). Meanwhile, Houston’s knee injury is serious, though the team is waiting for the MRI to make an official determination on him (Twitter link via Jeff Dickerson of ESPN.com). In the case of Houston, it sounds like his injury could result in him being placed on IR.
Trevathan spent his entire four-year career with the Broncos before reuniting with Fox and joining up with the Bears this offseason. He started 15 games in 2015, compiling 109 tackles and a pair of interceptions. The 26-year-old also had a standout performance in the Super Bowl, grabbing a pair of fumble recoveries in Denver’s victory over Carolina. Trevathan recovered well from a knee injury that limited him to only three games in 2014 and, thankfully, this latest setback won’t shut him down for the year.
Houston was considered to be on the 53-man roster bubble this offseason but ultimately made the cut. Last year, Houston appeared in all 16 games for the Bears, recording 42 tackles and a career-high eight sacks.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Bears QB Jay Cutler To Miss Several Games?
12:20pm: Coach John Fox says it doesn’t appear that Cutler will have thumb surgery in the short term, Patrick Finley of the Sun Times tweets. He called Cutler “day to day” but coaches don’t always tell the truth when it comes to star players with injuries.
10:38am: The Bears are “preparing for a lengthy absence” for quarterback Jay Cutler after he injured his thumb, a source tells Ian Rapoport of NFL.com (on Twitter). Now, it remains to be seen whether Cutler will have surgery. If Cutler goes under the knife, he will presumably be out for even longer. 
[RELATED: Brandon Marshall On Last Year’s Trade]
Cutler suffered his injury in the season opener against the Texans, a source tells Adam L. Jahns of the Chicago Sun-Times. The quarterback played through last night’s loss to the Eagles with that ligament damage in his right thumb and exacerbated the problem. Typically, this kind of injury results in a three-to-four week absence, Jahns hears.
Cutler, 33, left Monday night’s game after throwing an interception in the third quarter. Before his early exit, Cutler completed 12 of 17 passes for 157 yards. He was also sacked three times.
Without Cutler, the Bears will lean on free agent pickup Brian Hoyer. Hoyer is coming off of the best season of his career as he completed 60% of his passes for 2,600+ yards while throwing 19 touchdowns against seven interceptions. After leading the Texans to a 5-4 record in his nine starts, however, Hoyer had a dreadful showing against Chiefs in the playoffs.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Sitton Received Calls From “15 or 16” Teams
As Ryan Pace and John Fox met with Josh Sitton, 15 or 16 teams contacted the free agent guard, Sitton told Dan Wiederer of the Chicago Tribune.
“Probably 15 or 16 teams called. Of the ones that were truly serious, there were probably four or five,” Sitton said of the interest that accumulated during his visit with the Bears’ brass.
GMs and coaches contacted 30-year-old guard, along with Kyle Long. Per Wiederer, both Fox and Pace did not give the longtime Packers mainstay the hard sell, instead pitching him what a guard tandem of he and Long would look like. Long, though, did make a more aggressive sales pitch. “He wasn’t going to let up,” Sitton told Wiederer.
However, Chicago’s power structure did have to make their pitch quickly while seeing Sitton’s phone buzz constantly.
But Sitton also did not want to leave the meeting without a deal, having made the 175-mile drive from Green Bay to Chicago on Sunday after quickly retrieving his belongings from the Packers’ locker room following his Saturday release.
“I’ve seen what John has done with every team he has been at. He comes in and [turns] the program around. So I wanted to feel that this was a team on the rise,” Sitton said of a meeting at a Chicago-area restaurant.
Sitton ended up signing for three years and $21.75MM and forms one of the league’s top guard tandems, along with the recently extended Long. The Saints were probably another of the serious teams that contacted Sitton, but he did not leave the Chicago summit without a deal.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Bears Try Out Punter
Friday’s workouts from around the NFL:
- The Cardinals auditioned a pair of offensive linemen, guard Vlad Ducasse and tackle Garry Williams, reports Adam Caplan of ESPN (on Twitter). Ducasse is the more experienced of the two, having made 78 appearances and 22 starts since the Jets drafted him in the second round in 2010. Ducasse totaled a career-high 11 starts with Chicago last season. Williams has played far fewer games than Ducasse (41), but he has made just one fewer start (21). The 30-year-old’s latest action came in 2014, though, and he hasn’t appeared in more than one game in a season since 2012. Williams spent the first five years of his career with the Panthers.
- The Lions tried out two offensive tackles – Sam Young and Laurence Gibson – and defensive tackle Cliff Matthews, tweets Caplan. Young, a sixth-round pick in 2010, has amassed a combined 58 appearances and 13 starts with the Cowboys, Bills and Jaguars. He suited up in all 16 games last season for the first time. The Falcons chose Matthews in the seventh round of the 2011 draft, and he ultimately appeared in 32 games with Atlanta from 2012-14.
- The Browns worked out offensive lineman Mike Leidtke, as agent Brett Tessler tweets. Liedtke, an Illinois State product, auditioned for New Orleans last week.
- Punter A.J. Hughes tried out for the Bears, according to Caplan (Twitter link).
Zach Links contributed to this post.
PFR’s Impact Rookies Series
All summer long, longtime scouting consultant Dave-Te Thomas of The NFL Draft Report has been breaking down the draft class of every team in the league and identifying the players that can immediately make a difference. The Impact Rookies series, which wrapped up today with a look at the Seahawks, provides unique insight to this year’s NFL freshman class from a veteran guru who worked closely with several teams around the league leading up to the draft.
Here is the full rundown of the Impact Rookies series:
AFC East
AFC North
AFC South
AFC West
NFC East
NFC North
NFC South
NFC West
NFL Practice Squad Updates: 9/14/16
Here are Wednesday’s practice squad moves from around the NFL:
Chicago Bears
- Signed: DL Jimmy Staten (Twitter link via Jeff Dickerson of ESPN.com)
Cleveland Browns
- Signed: WR Josh Boyce (Twitter link via Nate Ulrich of the Akron Beacon Journal)
New England Patriots
- Signed: WR DeAndrew White (Twitter link via Doug Kyed of NESN)
Oakland Raiders
- Signed: DE Jimmy Bean (Twitter link via Scott Bair of CSNBayArea.com)
- Cut: LB Curtis Grant
San Francisco 49ers
- Signed: WR Chris Harper (Twitter link via Matt Barrows of the Sacramento Bee)
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
- Signed: DT Rodney Coe (Twitter link via Roy Cummings of WFLA)
Washington Redskins
- Signed: C Austin Reiter (Twitter link via Mike Jones of the Washington Post)
Bears Work Out Four Defenders
- The Bears worked out former New England defensive end Rufus Johnson today, as Aaron Wilson of The Houston Chronicle tweets. The former sixth-rounder has one career appearance under his belt. Brad Biggs of the Chicago Tribune (via Twitter) adds three more players to the list of workouts: linebackers Deiontrez Mount and Jermauria Rasco and defensive end Jimmy Bean.
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