4 defensive players with the most to gain or lose in Thursday's Bears preseason finale
The Bears conclude the preseason vs. the Tennessee Titans Thursday night, less than 48 hours before Saturday's 3 p.m. deadline to trim rosters from 90 to 53 players.
It's the same timeline as the 30 clubs clashing outside of Chicago, though many won't face the number of difficult decisions staring at the Bears, who have one of the NFL's more talented rosters.
And only the Green Bay Packers will navigate the same truncated Week 1 schedule of the Bears, with both teams scheduled to practice Sunday mere hours after the window first opens to sign practice squad players - the first of only three final opportunities to prepare before "Thursday Night Football."
"You're trying to keep the best players, maybe not necessarily the best positions," Matt Nagy explained Tuesday, after acknowledging that some preseason performances - good and bad - can trump his and GM Ryan Pace's preconceived notions on the makeup of the 53-man roster. "Those decisions - they're never easy. The other part is we're on a short week, so they can't be long discussions either because we're trying to get ready for Green Bay."
Every Bears player vying for a job is now short on time to interview, but here are the defensive players we suspect still have the most to gain - or lose - Thursday:
Joel Iyiegbuniwe (LB)
He led Chicago in special teams snaps (317) and tackles (6) as a rookie, and he's coming off a productive game on defense in Indy with five tackles - including a sack - and a fumble recovery. Even so, Iggy was out-shined by Nick Kwiatkoski, who even made a positive impression in coverage with his deflection that Deon Bush parlayed into a 91-yard pick-6, and lacks the experience of vet Kevin Pierre-Louis, if not the upside of Josh Woods.
James Vaughters (OLB)
The preseason is about seizing opportunities, and it's tough to argue anyone has capitalized on theirs more than Vaughters, who's used sheer strength and relentlessness to notch strip-sacks in consecutive weeks after falling on a Woods forced fumble in his Bears debut. That's the thing: Vaughters has to rely on his want-to because he doesn't have any standout skills, but we're still waiting to see Kylie Fitts' traits. Could Nagy have been referring to Vaughters when he mentioned this week how preseason performances can alter roster makeup? We'll see, but we have Vaughters clearly ahead of Fitts and doing everything in his power to make the Bears consider keeping a fifth outside linebacker.
John Franklin III (CB)
JFIII, the converted FAU quarterback and "Last Chance U" star, is certainly a fascinating story. His camp also might be akin to that book you read that you couldn't put down initially, but the more you read, the less impressed you were. Indeed, it's been a rough go of late for the Bourbonnais ball magnet, but there's no shame in being a raw and athletic developmental prospect at a new position. There also might not be a place for that on the roster if he's battling Kevin Toliver, who hails from "DBU," aka LSU, and acquitted himself fine in actual games as an undrafted rookie a year ago. But JFIII has one more chance to convince the Bears otherwise.
Sherrick McManis (S)
Could Thursday mark the final game in navy and orange for the Bears' longest-tenured player? We still suspect his special teams ability would be missed, but he's ran - at a new position, mind you - with the third team all through camp behind entrenched Deon Bush, as well as the younger DeAndre Houston-Carson. There's no room at corner, which is why we assumed the Bears moved McManis to safety to give him his best shot to stick. And perhaps he does. But this season might as well mark the unofficial start of a new era of Bears special teams, and that also might prove problematic for a 31-year-old without a true position on defense.
• Arthur Arkush is the managing editor for Pro Football Weekly. For more on the NFL, visit profootballweekly.com and follow Arthur on Twitter