Florio told you on Thursday to beware the Bears.
One reason Chicago could be more dangerous than expected this year: They have a hungry roster. Dan Pompeii of the Chicago Tribune wrote an interesting piece on how many Bears are fighting for their livelihood on a daily basis.
The numbers:
17 players have contracts expire at the end of the year, including eight starters.
8 of those 17 players signed one-year deals with the team, veterans like Amobi Okoye.
14 players on the roster weren’t drafted. 5 undrafted rookies made the team.
15 players have been cut previously in their NFL career.
I would need to see the average numbers of teams around the league in these categories to see them in context, but the totals sure seem high.
“I’ve bounced around enough to know that every opportunity could be your last. I make it a point of telling myself before every practice that I’m going to leave it all out there today,” defensive end Nick Reed said. He was out of football last year.
Veteran Anthony Adams says a lot of his teammates aren’t trying to win friends in practice. They are trying to win jobs that they already have.
Perhaps the Bears have hit upon a good way to avoid complacency with a team that experienced surprising success a year ago.