The Bears have yet to begin making mass cuts in an effort to move towards the eventual 53-man roster, instead opting to look at a few bigger names that should affect how the rest of the roster plays out. According to Bears senior writer Larry Mayer, the Bears released quarterback P.J. Walker and waived offensive lineman Alex Leatherwood while waiving guard Gabriel Houy with an injury designation. 
The most notable departure here is Leatherwood, who has consistently slotted in as the team’s backup to Teven Jenkins, whose struggles to stay on the field have only continued this offseason. Without Jenkins or Leatherwood, ESPN’s Courtney Cronin reports that Cody Whitehair would be the one filling Jenkins’ spot. If that’s the case, the Bears would then need to turn to Lucas Patrick to cover Whitehair’s starting center role.
Walker, a former backup quarterback who started seven games for the Panthers over the past three years, apparently failed to do enough to stay in the running for the backup job behind Justin Fields. That leaves the Bears with Nathan Peterman and undrafted rookie Tyson Bagent as the team’s reserve options behind Fields
Another notable part of this transaction is the money that gets left on the table by Chicago here. Leatherwood reportedly had $4.59MM of guarantees remaining on his deal, while the money lost by releasing Walker brings that total up to around $7MM in dead money. Second-year general manager Ryan Poles is making it clear that money owed on a contract isn’t going to determine roster spots for this year’s squad.
Leatherwood is huge waste of talent; great at Alabama not elite but still an NFL talent that must not have the work ethic sadly after two NFL cuts.
A lot is made about LV’s bad drafting, but few acknowledge just how much they players they drafted sucked on their own accords for different reasons. From the Leatherwoods (wasted talent) to the Ruggs (criminal), there are no shortage of such players.
As a Raiders fan there is no excusing that stretch of bad drafts. Yes Ferrell, Leatherwood, Ruggs and Arnette have tools that made them NFL caliber players. The problem with those drafts is where they took those players. John Abram was a heat seeking missile and I didn’t even have an issue with that pick although he didn’t have sustained success in the league, dude couldn’t cover anybody. Ruggs was the least of a reach of the other 3 mentioned above but there were other WR’s on the board that had a better all around game than him and have obviously panned out better. I have no doubt Ruggs was on his way to becoming a difference maker before he threw his life down the toilet, but there were other quality WR’s on the board that obviously would’ve worked out better. If you look at the talent we left on the board to reach for these guys it’s sickening. If they really wanted those guys so badly they could’ve traded down and acquired more picks to grab some other possibilities. I understand that these guys may not have been the best pros they could’ve been but there is no excuse for those drafts and thankfully we managed to pull Maxx Crosby, Jacobs and Nate Hobbs out of them.
It takes more than talent to succeed in the NFL. Maybe the Raiders saw talent.. but they missed on what makes the person tick… It’s all one package.
Hopefully this means the Bears are going to bring someone in like Risner or they’re hoping someone falls to them on cut day. They must have someone up their sleeve because the line is pretty beat up right now.
Did you mistakenly buy a Bears jersey with the name Risner on it…lol. This guy probably gets more support from you that his agent.
LOL. Well he’s pretty good, Jenkins is pretty brittle . He’s just sitting there. All this nonsense about Jones and RB’s. How about they get something they need? I’ve always liked Carter and thought he deserved more play but now it seems Davis and Jenkins are brittle. I can’t believe they fell in love with the guy they picked up from the Lions. The whole inside of the line is a walking injury. I just bought stock in Johnson and Johnson because of all the band aids. I hope they have a better plan than do nothing.
They won’t have to wait for players to fall to them. They have the first option on any waived player til after week 3.
PJ Walker back to Houston Roughnecks where he’s appreciated
Heck Leatherwood can probably join him