People always focus on the high draft picks and pricey free agents as the primary driving forces behind a football team’s success. However, history shows that the ones that can find value in lesser places seem to consistently come out on top. The Kansas City Chiefs are driven by Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce, and Chris Jones. Yet their astounding success also doesn’t happen without names like Darrel Williams (UDFA), Byron Pringle (UDFA), Tommy Townsend (UDFA), Laurent Duvernay-Tardif (6th round pick), Trey Smith (6th round pick), and Tyreek Hill (5th round pick). To that end, the Chicago Bears have made it their mission to find value in these areas as well.
The past few off-seasons suggest they’ve gotten good at it. Jack Sanborn, Braxton Jones, Josh Blackwell, and Tyson Bagent have all made key contributions to their efforts to improve. Blackwell was a key pickup on the waiver wire in 2022. Former scouting director Greg Gabriel believes they may have struck again. He singled out two recent additions to their practice squad, who may impact the team more than people realize.
Roberts is quick off the ball, stays low and can consistently get penetration to disrupt the run game. During the pre-season this summer, he recorded 10 total tackles playing in the Dline rotation, with eight of those coming last week. Though he was playing versus backups, he was able to get off blocks quickly and get to the ball. He has the “hot” motor that ‘Flus loves and goes all-out on every snap.
He was followed closely by wide receiver Samori Toure, a former Packers 7th round pick.
Coming out of college, he measured 6007 – 191 and ran a 4.48. He has 32.5” arms and 9.5” hands. For Green Bay, he played both inside and outside and showed good route-running ability. He gets out of a cut quickly and can consistently get separation. His hands are good, and from the games viewed, he shows an adequate catch radius. While he is not a strong runner after the catch, he is shifty and can make an opponent miss. His blocking needs to improve.
I feel he is a good fit for the Bears’ offensive scheme, and it would not surprise me if we see him brought up to the 53 during the season.
Injuries are inevitable in the NFL. Teams suffer them to varying degrees throughout the season. Those who have built strong depth are usually the ones who survive to reach the postseason. The Bears believe they’ve done a good job building the bottom of their roster. Roberts and Toure are two more examples of this. Both are talented enough to be on an active lineup. Yet Chicago has managed to stash both on their practice squad. Once they are up to speed on the playbooks, Gabriels seems convinced they can become contributors on the field.
Both players have the athletic profiles. Both have shown steady improvement in their fundamentals over the past couple of seasons. Maybe all they need is an opportunity. Roberts had five pressures and a sack in 56 regular season snaps last season. Extended out to the same number of rushes Justin Jones had last year (487), he was on pace for 43 pressures and eight sacks. Toure had eight catches for 78 yards on 18 targets last season. He had five catches on nine targets for 82 yards in 2022. If you push that target share to around 45, which the fourth target in Seattle had last season under Shane Waldron, he would’ve had 410 yards.
Considering how cheap both players were, Gabriel might be right about them being steals.
