Getty Head coach Matt Eberflus and the Chicago Bears finalized their 53-man roster on August 30.
The Chicago Bears finalized their 53-man roster on August 30, and one of the players who didn’t make the cut was veteran defensive back Tavon Young.
According to the team’s official website, the Bears placed “cornerback Tavon Young on injured reserve,” but the veteran defender took to Twitter to dispute that notion. “Nobody on IR,” Young tweeted, adding: “I don’t even know where that came from??” He has since deleted the tweet, but we caught a screen shot of it first:
TwitterTavon Young has since deleted the above tweet.
At the time they officially announced their final roster, the Bears had 11 defensive backs on it: cornerbacks Jaylon Johnson, Kyler Gordon, Kindle Vildor, Lamar Jackson, Duke Shelley and Jaylon Jones, along with safeties Eddie Jackson, Jaquan Brisker, DeAndre Houston-Carson, Elijah Hicks and Dane Cruikshank. That could change soon, but Young’s name isn’t on that list, further adding to the confusion surrounding his tweet.
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Young Has Been Hampered By Leg Injury
The Bears signed Young in April of 2022, and at the time, he was expected to compete for a starting job at cornerback. When the Bears selected corner Kyler Gordon with the 39th overall pick in the second round of the draft a month later, Young became a likely depth addition behind Gordon and third-year starter Jaylon Johnson.
Young was dealing with a lower-leg injury throughout the month of August, and according to Bears insider Brad Biggs of the Chicago Tribune, both Young and second-year cornerback Thomas Graham Jr. saw their chances of making the final roster dwindle due to their respective ailments.
“Both players missed so much time in training camp that they haven’t been able to push for a job,” Biggs wrote about Young and Graham on August 24. “I doubt both Young and Graham would make the team even if both were healthy. Matt Eberflus had said very little about Young until Tuesday, when he said the veteran has been dealing with a lower leg injury.”
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Young Should Find Work Soon — If He’s Healthy
A former fourth-round pick out of the University of Temple for the Baltimore Ravens in 2016, Young missed the entire 2017 season after tearing his ACL, but he responded nicely after that. At one point in his four years as an active player, Young was the NFL’s highest-paid nickel cornerback.
He inked a three-year, $25.8 million extension that had a maximum value of $29 million in 2019 according to NFL insider Adam Schefter. Young, 28, wound up being released by the Ravens in spring of 2022 in a cap-saving move, and the Bears picked him up shortly after that.
In 50 games and 24 starts with the Ravens, Young accumulated 127 total tackles (111 solo, 11 for loss), four interceptions, 16 passes defensed, six QB hits, 4.0 sacks and three fumble recoveries (stats via Pro Football Reference).
We’ll see where he lands next — and whether or not he comments further on his IR designation.
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