Bears add defensive end Jonathan Garvin |
Dustin Riese
· · 3 hours ago
At some point, all the injuries the Chicago Bears are racking up will start to catch up with them. It's hard to believe this team is still above .500, especially given the number of injuries they have had to deal with and the quality of players who have suffered them.
Just when you think this team is about to get healthy with Edge Rusher Austin Booker expected to make his season debut on Sunday, the Bears saw two more names hit the injured list, with Dominque Robinson and Shemar Turner officially set to miss time. Robinson will be back at some point, as he is nursing a high ankle sprain, whereas Turner will be lost for the remainder of the season with a torn ACL. If the Bears want to remain a competitive team and make a potential playoff push, they need to stop the injuries, or they will have a hard time fielding enough rested players come Sunday. Knowing that two more players are set to miss some extended time, the Bears have already gone about hitting the Free Agent Market, as Former Green Bay Packer Defensive Tackle Jonathan Garvin and the Bears have agreed to a deal that will land him on the Chicago Practice Squad. A former seventh-round pick in 2020, Gravin is being brought in to give the pass rush a minimal boost, even if he is solely used in practice and scout team situations. Given his NFL experience, he could make the out-right roster sooner rather than later, as he would give Chicago a boost at the interior portion of their defensive line. Known for his time with the Packers, Garvin has played sparingly over the past five seasons, but has proven that when given the opportunity, he can, at the very least, make a few plays. In 38 career games with the Packers, Garvin has logged 673 defensive snaps, which is roughly 35% of the team's total snaps in the games he has played in. In those games, Garvin tallied 32 total tackles, 1.5 sacks, one tackle for loss, and seven quarterback hits, which isn't bad for a part-time interior lineman whose main job is to clog up running lanes. After his time with the Packers ended, Garvin had a hard time finding a job, which led him to the UFL, where he played on the Birmingham Stallions defense. This past spring was the first time in his career when Garvin was coming into his own as a player, as he finished the 2025 UFL season with 29 tackles, 5.5 sacks, and two forced fumbles. Granted, most of that success came against practice-squad players or even players who may never sniff an NFL roster, but that production alone is worth noting, as Chicago hopes he can show them how much he has grown as a player. Ironically, this isn't the first time Garvin has worked out with the Bears; he had a workout with them earlier in September but left without a deal in place. This time around, he must have impressed them enough to earn a deal, or this could've been a situation where the Bears needed bodies, and he was one of the best available bodies left. Until the injuries slow or the players currently nursing them return, Chicago will have to do whatever it can to fill its roster and build as much depth as possible. These are the types of signings you can expect them to make, as Garvin could be the first of what could be a flurry of practice squad moves in the coming days.
