Chicago Bears: 5 Winners from the 2021 preseason
Now that the preseason games are finished, the wait for the Chicago Bears to announce the official roster is on. Here are five players who opened many eyes.
The Chicago Bears finished their preseason games. In 13 days, they start playing games that count. In the meantime, some players are sweating things out until Tuesday’s 4 PM Eastern deadline for the official roster to be announced.
Some of those players know they’ll be on the roster but they want to know how deep they are on the roster. They hope to have made enough of an impression on the coaches to earn either a starting job or one of the main backups.
For others, they’ll be happy just to be named to the roster. They might not have had much attention entering camp and in the preseason games, but they hope their play made a case for them to continue to wear a Chicago Bears uniform.
Knowing that, we saw a few players who took their best step forward and played lights out. They opened eyes and received rave reviews. For some, their play might have changed minds and put a wrench on the plans the coaching staff might have had going into training camp.
In a day, we’ll see how much of an impression some of these players made. Did they do enough to make the roster or to win some coveted jobs? Stay tuned to find out.
For now, however, let’s see some of the players who impressed and won the preseason.
5. Jesper Horsted, Tight End
The Chicago Bears have Cole Kmet and Jimmy Graham as their top tight ends on the roster. Going into training camp, they didn’t have much depth, however. They let Demetrius Harris go and then didn’t have much behind him.
They signed Jake Butt, but he had injury troubles throughout his career and hasn’t found much time on the field. He came in to see if he could still take the rigors of the NFL after all his injuries.
He couldn’t. Soon after training camp opened, he decided to retire.
The Bears then went out and signed Jesse James. He did well and looks to make the team. That likely leaves one spot. Jesper Horsted and JP Holtz probably fought for that last spot.
Horsted had a great training camp and it translated to the preseason games. He became the go-to guy after James left the field.
Horsted made his final claim in this past weekend’s preseason finale against the Tennessee Titans. He caught three touchdown passes, one of them on an impossible throw.
Horsted definitely opened eyes and likely earned that last tight end job.