Actives and Potential Inactives for Bears vs Bills

On Saturday, August 26, the Bears play their final preseason game against the Buffalo Bills at noon. After this game, each team will trim their rosters down to 53 players. That means this game is the last chance for players to earn a roster spot. With that being the case, here are the actives and potential inactives for the Bears vs. Bills on Saturday.

Bears Injuries and practice nonparticipants

This past week of practice has been filled with Bears players sitting out due to injury or other undisclosed reasons. These are the 16 players who didn’t suit up for Bears practice Thursday.

The list of injuries and nonparticipants for the Bears is frightening. Especially when eight players on it are starters. Of the starters injured, Nate Davis, Jaquan Brisker, Lucas Patrick and Chase Claypool. all have not played in the preseason. The lack of preseason action may affect their play when they return. This means they might look out of sync with the rest of the team and cause unwanted penalties. This is especially true for Patrick and Davis, who will have little in game playing chemistry with the rest of the offensive line. Bad offensive line chemistry will affect the offense as a whole.

Additionally, punt return duties for Saturday’s game are left in the air, with Dante Pettis being placed on the injured reserve and Velus Jones Jr. being injuried. Missing these two will allow others to get a chance to return punts and potentially secure a roster spot. To secure the spot at punt returner, a player will need to show potential for explosive returns and not mishandle catching the punt. If that can be done, then fans would feel more comfortable with the Bears’ special teams going into the season.

Bills Injuries and practice nonparticipants

Heading into the final week of the preseason, the Bills have a few injuries.

Von Miller will also miss this game as he is on the PUP list. Even with Miler’s injury, the Bills only have two injured starters entering this game. That is a positive because it will allow Bills coaches to gain a better understanding of what the team will look like during the regular season. If the Bills look good in this game without two important starters, they will look even better when Miller and McGrovern return.
The other players on this list are all fighting for a roster spot. So, missing the last preseason game might result in them not getting a roster spot.

Starter Availability

If the Bears do not play starters this week, it would mean that 29 days would have passed from their last game action to the first week of the regular season. That could result in messy play. Thankfully, on Thursday afternoon, Bears head coach Matt Eberflus told reporters that Justin Fields and available starters will play on a snap count on Saturday. Playing the starters this week allows Fields to get live reps with a backup offensive line Playing with the backup offensive line will help Fields get used to their protection which is paramount since the Backups may be protecting him in week one. Playing starters also allows the newly put together defense to mesh as a unit in game action.

In his Thursday morning press conference, Bills head coach Sean McDermot told reporters that Josh Allen and the starters will play in their final preseason game. This is not surprising after the Bills starting offense had a rough outing last week against the Steelers. However, it will be interesting to see how many drives McDermot allows the starting offense to play against the Bears. Since he has to balance keeping players healthy and fixing the kinks in the offense.

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