The Bears’ final episode of “Hard Knocks” aired Tuesday and focused on closing out training camp and moving on to what the team hopes will be a breakthrough season.
As general manager Ryan Poles worked to get his roster down to the 53-player limit, he received a call about a trade for running back and special-teamer Velus Jones. It wasn’t clear which team reached out and what it offered — the Bears have the final edit of the show — but Poles said he refused to accept less than a fourth-round pick.
Nonetheless, the offer was somewhat enticing.
“Unbelievable value, but does it make sense for the Bears right now? No,” Poles said.
Poles drafted Jones as a wide receiver and returner in the third round at No. 71 overall in 2022, but he has yet to find a steady role in the offense and has had major issues with ball security on special teams. Poles told director of football administration Matt Feinstein that moving Jones to running back gives him “extra runway to develop.”
The last episode of “Hard Knocks” typically shows players getting cut, which has always been chairman George McCaskey’s biggest public objection to being picked.
“When you’re telling a kid that his life’s dream has ended, at least as far as your team is concerned, we think that should be a private thing,” McCaskey said in 2016.
But the show had scenes of Poles and assistant general manager Ian Cunningham informing several players they’d been let go.
Safety Adrian Colbert, one of the series’ stars, seemed like the toughest conversation for Poles. Colbert had been with the organization since 2022, and Poles immediately stepped out of view of the cameras to wipe his eyes and compose himself.
“I appreciate you, man,” Poles told him. “There’s something about you that’s different. I hate that we have to do this. There’s some guys you just root for, and you’re one of them.”
Colbert called the Bears his favorite of the 10 teams he has been with since making it to the NFL in 2017.
The rest of the episode was filled out with bits and pieces:
- Coach Matt Eberflus having an apiary on his property.
- Poles talking about the Bears cutting him as an undrafted offensive lineman in 2008.
- Another Jonathan Owens FaceTime with Simone Biles.
- Rookie quarterback Austin Reed saying he’d “probably go back to Jacksonville and work at a Chili’s” if he got cut (the Bears brought him back on their practice squad).
- Wide receiver DJ Moore’s daughter Arielle giving a tour of the family’s new house, and Moore saying he hoped to one day retire as a Bear.
After months of anticipation by Bears fans and more than a decade of waiting by Williams, his first game is Sunday at Soldier Field.
Each week this season, the Sun-Times will examine the play of the starting rookie quarterbacks picked in the top 12 of the NFL Draft.
The Bears might disappoint, but it’s unlikely they’ll plummet to lows that have made change inevitable in previous years. So unless Eberflus’ own defense is the root of the Bears’ demise — another unlikely event — he’s not going anywhere in 2024.
