The most engaging moment of the first quarter of the Bears’ preseason finale had nothing to do with Justin Fields and the offense, Yannick Ngakoue and the defense, or anything that happened on the field. It was a surprisingly timed report from Jeremy Fowler that the Bears had given Trevis Gipson permission to seek out a trade.
After the game head coach Matt Eberflus addressed the report, but didn’t add any insights.
“I’m not going to really comment on that because I don’t know much about that,” Eberflus said. “I know that just came out. But I can just say this: Trevis is an outstanding young man, and he works his tail off, and he’s been great since he’s been there. He had some good plays out there today too.”
Gipson has been buried on the defensive end depth chart behind players like Dominique Robinson and Terrell Lewis, despite making several splash plays throughout the summer. As Eberflus alluded to, Saturday was no different. Gipson came away with a strip sack, giving him a final preseason line of nine tackles, two sacks, four QB hits and one forced fumble. Pretty good for a guy fighting for a roster spot, and yet Gipson appears to be the odd man out in the Bears defensive line room.
The Bears need to cut down their roster from 87 players to 53 by 3 p.m. this Tuesday. If the Bears know Gipson is the odd man out, then it makes sense that Ryan Poles would try to get a pick from a team lower down the waiver priority list in exchange for Gipson rather than cutting him for nothing.
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