Bears coach Lovie Smith insisted on Monday that he never told running back Chester Taylor he was going to be released.
“I guess there was a misunderstanding on exactly what we talked about,” Smith said Monday via Sean Jensen of the Chicago Sun-Times. “Chester Taylor is still a part of the team. . . If a player is released, I will tell him that, ‘You’re released, thank you.’ That is not the case.”
Here’s our best guess at the situation. Smith told Taylor Saturday that Taylor wasn’t in the team’s plans for Saturday’s game. Taylor may have thought then he was done with the team. Taylor told his agent and word leaked out.
Smith gave Taylor the rest of Monday off to cool off and hopes he’s back at practice on Tuesday. Despite all the drama, we’d be surprised if Taylor was still on the team Saturday after final cuts are announced.
“Thought we had a good conversation. I guess it didn’t go exactly like I thought it did,” Smith said.