Bears wideout Iglesias feels the heat as he fights for spot
BOURBONNAIS - The first roster reduction is still 22 days away, and only a handful of players will be trimmed to get down to that 75-man limit, but four days later the final cut to 53 is due, and some familiar names could be former Bears by then.
Some fairly high recent draft picks are among the more well-known Bears players on the bubble, especially at wide receiver and defensive back, and for them time is running out. Wide receiver Juaquin Iglesias knows that as well as anyone.
A third-round pick in 2009, Iglesias was facing a battle even before he suffered a quad injury Aug. 1 that kept him out of action until Sunday, although he did dress for Friday night's practice at Soldier Field.
"I finally just told the trainers, 'I'm coming out here, I'm tired of watching,' " Iglesias said Sunday. "It's frustrating on the sideline. I don't want to come out here and rush it, but I'm tired of watching. As a competitor, I want to get out there. I'm trying to fight for a spot and I can't do it from the sideline."
Not when Devin Hester, Johnny Knox, Devin Aromashodu, Earl Bennett and Rashied Davis are all clearly ahead of him on the depth chart, although not necessarily in that order. Last year the Bears had six wide receivers on their opening-day roster, Iglesias being the sixth. He dressed for just one game, the season finale, and had a productive off-season. But now he's lost ground and could be competing for the final receiver spot with undrafted rookies and first-year players, none of whom have separated themselves from the crowd.
The Bears' preseason opens Saturday night in San Diego against the Chargers, and Iglesias needs to be ready.
"The preseason games are everything for me," he said. "You can do so much in practice, and that's all good. You might catch 100 balls in practice. But when you get out there, when it counts, when the lights are on and the crowd's out there, that's when it counts. So I'm trying to get out there and trying to play. I haven't played in a while, being off last season. I'm excited to get out there."
Although the Bears had 11 defensive backs on their roster at the start of the 2009 season, that position is more crowded than most.
Charles Tillman and Zack Bowman are the starting corners, but several players have taken first-teams reps at safety, including Danieal Manning and Chris Harris, who started camp with the ones.
But Harris' back injury kept him out a week and allowed Josh Bullocks, Craig Steltz and rookie Major Wright to get some first-team reps. Bullocks has been out with a minor quad injury and Wright missed four days with a groin injury. Backup cornerback Corey Graham is a lock for the 53-man, and Tim Jennings is expected to be there, too.
The only way Wright doesn't make the final cut is if he is re-injured and lands on the injured-reserve list, but he practiced Sunday night. Fellow rookie Joshua Moore, a fifth-round corner from Kansas State is a safe bet, too, and the Bears love cornerback Woodny Turenne's speed. He played in the season finale last year after spending almost all season on the practice squad.
That's 11, which could mean bad news for two of last year's draft picks. Safety Al Afalava was a sixth-round sensation last year and wound up starting 13 games. But he has slipped down the depth chart and is fighting for a spot on the roster. He's probably ahead of cornerback D.J. Moore, last year's fourth-round pick, who played briefly in just three games and has yet to establish himself.