For the second straight Saturday, the Bears cut ties with a veteran linebacker, this time cutting Sam Acho to make room for second-year inside backer Lamin Barrow, according to Jeff Dickerson and Field Yates of ESPN.com (on Twitter). Barrow had resided on the Bears’ practice squad.
This cut, however, is due to an illness, Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio reports. The Bears released Acho with a non-football illness designation.
Like Mason Foster, who Chicago released last week after signing him in March, Acho was set to serve as a backup linebacker in the Bears’ new 3-4 set. The Bears added Acho to a one-year, $745K deal in April after the former fourth-round pick played four seasons with the Cardinals, accruing 13 career sacks — seven, and four forced fumbles, as a rookie in 2011.
Acho has 32 career starts, but 26 of those came in 2011-12 before a broken leg suffered in 2013 derailed his career. He is a vested veteran and can sign with any team.
A fifth-round pick of John Fox‘s last May with the Broncos, Barrow saw action in all 16 games last season, mostly on special teams. Although the LSU product participated in just 49 defensive snaps, Barrow played all three linebacker positions in Denver’s 4-3 scheme and made one start as the team battled injuries on the second level.
The Broncos waived Barrow last week. He chose to accept the Bears’ practice squad offer due to a relationship with Fox, Adam Jahns of the Chicago Sun-Times tweets.