Looks like Forte's reps will be up again this year:
Jones injured his ankle as he jumped out of bounds during Thursday night's game against the Cleveland Browns at Soldier Field. He left the game, and while X-rays on the ankle were negative, an MRI done Friday morning revealed a torn ligament, according to the Post.
Jones was penciled in as the backup to second year starter/dreamboat Matt Forte. But in an attempt to avoid injury by jumping out of the way of a hit on Thursday night, he ironically hurt his ankle and prematurely ended his season.
I don't think this will have a major effect on the Bears' offense this year. Forte is a workhorse and has Wolfe and the OAP ("Other Adrian Peterson") behind him. Both capable backups.
This also opens up an intriguing dilemna for the Bears with final cuts looming. Before the injury, the Bears were planning on keeping 4 RBs and 1 FB and 5 WRs. Brandon Rideau, a player getting alot of attention in camp, was thought to be the 6th WR and odd man out. The Bears were more than likely not going to cut their two newly drafted WRs because draft status is highly touted in Halas Hall. So that means, between Juaquin Iglesias and Johnny Knox, at least one of them would take a roster spot with the other heading to the practice squad. Jones' injury opens up a slot...so the decision needs to be made whether the Bears want to:
1) keep a 2nd FB...which, unless they want to keep the combo TE/FB Michael Gaines, doesn't make a whole ton of sense
2) keep the 5th best RB in camp who will likely get no significant PT and won't help
3) keep Rideau, who is the Bears' biggest WR, as a 6th WR
If you can't tell, I'm leaning towards option 3. The RB position is settled....Forte is the starter. The backups would end up just splitting the touches that were leftover. However, we really don't know what we are getting out of our WRs. Hester is our no. 1 and he's barely a professional receiver yet. Bennett is a solid no. 2 and Cutler is comfortable with him already.
After that, does anyone really know what production the Bears are going to get from Aromashodu, Rashied Davis (being a special teams stud helps him keep a spot) and which of the two rookies isn't on the practice squad (probably Knox for his special teams upside)? Cutler likes Aromashodu now...but if one of them isn't working out, why wouldn't you want to put a guy like Rideau on the squad in case there's a shakeup at the WR position?
I don't think Rideau is practice squad eligible because he's entering his 4th season:
According to league policy, only certain types of players are allowed to sign to the practice squad. Players cannot have played more than nine regular season games or been on the active roster for an entire year, nor can players be allowed to spend more than two seasons on the same team's squad unless that team's active roster never dips below 53 players.
EDIT: Rideau was literally cut hours after making this post. So you just wasted your time reading this.
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