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You can read this article and many other articles at Bearsbacker.com, It's THE Blog for Any Chicago Bears fan. The Chicago Bears had to trim their roster down to 53 today and they decided to ...

Chicago Bears cut Rideau and keep Hanie

by Jake Perper (Senior Writer)

12

695 reads

Breaking News

August 30, 2008


You can read this article and many other articles at Bearsbacker.com, It's THE Blog for Any Chicago Bears fan.

The Chicago Bears had to trim their roster down to 53 today and they decided to keep three quarterbacks, four running backs, and six wide receivers.

They cut one guy, who everyone thought showed great promise and it could be a huge mistake.

Brandon Rideau, has been on the Bears practice squad for a couple of years now and in four games this preseason he caught three touchdown passes.

Rideau had 127 yards in those games, he totally outplayed veteran WR Marty Booker, who in my mind was the guy to go.

The Bears are looking to establish their eight man practice squad and they better put Rideau on that list.

Rideau is a big kid at 6'3" and I hope they add him to their roster this season, if they get him through waivers.

The Bears had talks about keeping only two QB's this season, but realized rookie QB Caleb Hanie from Colorado State showed too much this preseason.

Hanie is the QB of the future for the Bears, not only does he have a decent arm, but he is athletic and he can scramble for the first down, if you need it.

Hanie combined for 29/49 on passing attempts, 321 yards through the air, three touchdowns and two interceptions.

Hanie had this to say about making the 53 man roster "After a couple of [exhibition] games, I figured I had at least a shot at making it."

"It just really depended on the numbers for me. I'm just thankful to be in this position now."

"[Coach] Lovie Smith gave me a call and said, 'Usually these calls are bad, but I just wanted to let you know you made it."

Veteran Fred Miller has been offered a one-year deal, but has yet to act on it.

Also, rookie LT Chris Williams is likely out for the season and Terrance Metcalf doesn't know how long he will be out.

The Bears have only seven offensive lineman on their roster, with John St. Clair replacing Chris Williams at LT and Josh Beekman replacing Terrance Metcalf at LG.

Aslo released to get the roster down to 53 were offensive linemen Anthony Oakley and Tyler Reed, tight end Fontel Mines, long-snapper Thomas Gafford and nine rookies in punter Zacrey Atterberry, defensive end Ervin Baldwin, tackle Cody Balogh, cornerback Trey Brown, defensive ends Joe Clermond and Nick Osborn, linebacker Joey LaRocque, guard Ryan Poles and tight end Marcus Stone.

So here is the breakdown of the Chicago Bears 2008-2009 roster in alphabetical order:

Quarterbacks (3): Rex Grossman, Caleb Hanie, Kyle Orton

Running backs (4): Matt Forte, Kevin Jones, Adrian Peterson, Garrett Wolfe

Fullbacks (1): Jason McKie

Wide receivers (6): Earl Bennett, Marty Booker, Mark Bradley, Rashied Davis, Devin Hester, Brandon Lloyd

Tight ends (3): Desmond Clark, Kellen Davis, Greg Olsen

Offensive linemen (8): Kirk Barton, Josh Beekman, Roberto Garza, Olin Kreutz, Terrence Metcalf, John St. Clair, John Tait, Chris Williams

Defensive linemen (9): Anthony Adams, Mark Anderson, Alex Brown, Dusty Dvoracek, Tommie Harris, Marcus Harrison, Israel Idonije, Adewale Ogunleye, Matt Toeaina

Linebackers (6): Lance Briggs, Hunter Hillenmeyer, Darrell McClover, Nick Roach, Brian Urlacher, Jamar Williams

Cornerbacks (5): Zackary Bowman, Corey Graham, Trumaine McBride, Charles Tillman, Nate Vasher

Safeties (5): Mike Brown, Danieal Manning, Brandon McGowan, Kevin Payne, Craig Steltz

Specialists (3): Robbie Gould, Patrick Mannelly, Brad Maynard

The Bears want to get some other veteran offensive lineman in the mix, atleast as backups, just to help out the current line, which is shaky right now.

Also, they might regret the release of Rideau, but who knows, maybe Booker will wake up and have a big game.

I'm Jake P.

Email me at daperp730@aol.com

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12 comments Last one added 10 months ago — Leave a Comment

  1. Dennis Perper 10 months ago

    Hanie will be a star in a couple of years

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  2. Jack Frost 10 months ago

    Rideau completely beat out Booker and Bradley - but Lovie and Angelo always play favorites. McKie staying instead of Polite is another example. Angelo is a poor GM. Lovie is a bad coach. It's that simple.

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  3. Blake Simone 10 months ago

    rideau got the same treatment in cleveland as well. sucks i really like what i saw out of him in preseason.

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  4. Jake Perper 10 months ago

    He will be back on the practice squad i hope.

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  5. Joe Willett 10 months ago

    I expect Rideau to hide out on the PS for a year then come in ready to make the team next season. Hanie is going to need a good two years on the bench before he can actually start in my opinion, but we may have lucked into the QB of the future. Bradley looked strong, especially in the last preseason game. He may turn into the receiver we all expected this season. The offensive line scares me, and Kyle Orton should play with some extra padding.

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  6. Jake Perper 10 months ago

    i just thought about this. keep in mind Rideau is playin with the second string.

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  7. Chris O'Neil 10 months ago

    Hanie has been impressive in the preseason. But remember that he was playing against backups and other guys that got cut. It's true that he has shown a strong and accurate arm, along with some scrambling ability, but playing against a starting professional defense is much different than what he went up against.
    Don't count out Kyle Orton as your QB of the future. He's earned this starting job, and has been impressive against starting defenses so far.

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  8. Jake Perper 10 months ago

    good points Chris

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  9. Dale Johnson 10 months ago

    Get Anderson, X Bengal. No matter who we keep, no O line means no success. If we are lucky, the D fixes itself.

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  10. Dale Johnson 10 months ago

    After thought, not that I think we need O Line help, but ... what happened to LaCharles Bentley, X pro bowl Browns?

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  11. Jake Perper 10 months ago

    willie anderson would be a nice fit in chicago

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  12. Blake Simone 10 months ago

    The only thing I can hope for this season if it goes wrong, is that the Bears fire Angelo and hire someone to gm as aggressively as Phil Savage has in Cleveland. Now that I live here in Cleveland and watch the Browns more than I have in recent years, it been easy to be a little bit jealous in watching a team make good moves on players and not terrible choices based on favoritism and being afraid to admit a wrong they made a wrong choice in keeping mediocre to maybe subpar players and cutting one's that would fit in the program well. I love the Bears and always will, but something has to change in the organization fast and I think the best start is by hiring a new GM with good football knowledge.

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