The Chicago Bears have made a crafty roster move with Australian punter Tory Taylor to clear a spot for the addition of a former Green Bay Packers draft pick.
According to the team’s official transaction wire, the Bears signed veteran running back Salvon Ahmed and defensive back Anthony Johnson Jr. — a 2023 pick for the Packers — to their 90-man offseason roster in a series of roster moves on Thursday, May 21.
In a corresponding move, the Bears also waived running back Deion Hankins to clear a spot for one of the additions, as the team had been at the 90-man limit. To free up the other spot, though, they took advantage of Taylor’s international status and placed an international player roster exemption on him, effectively making him their 91st player.
Taylor’s international player roster exemption means that he will not count against the team’s 90-man roster through the rest of the offseason and training camp. Only once the Bears make their cuts to the 53-man roster limit before the start of the 2026 regular season will they need to clear a spot for Taylor and add him back to their roster.
The Bears are also allowed to use an international player roster exemption on one of their practice-squad players during the season to expand the roster limit to 17 players.
Bears Have Used Taylor’s International Status Before
The Bears are wisely taking advantage of the NFL’s international player rules to expand their roster size to 91 players for the rest of the offseason through training camp, but it is not the first time since Taylor came into the league in 2024 that they have done so.
The Bears have now moved Taylor — their 2024 fourth-round pick — onto the NFL’s international player list in each of his first three offseasons, doing so each time for the same reason: to add a depth player to the roster and squeeze the limit to 91 players.
In 2024, the Bears placed the roster exemption on Taylor and signed running back and wide receiver Demetric Felton, who stayed with the team until the second week of the preseason before losing his roster spot. In 2025, they used Taylor’s exemption to add another cornerback, Jeremiah Wright, who lasted until the final round of roster cuts.
While none of the talents made the 53-man roster, Taylor’s international exemption status is still a valuable card for the Bears to have in hand in terms of roster building.
Can Anthony Johnson Jr. Push for Bears Roster Spot?
Since the Bears announced all of the roster moves at once, Taylor’s temporarily vacant roster spot could have gone to either one of their new additions, Ahmed or Johnson.
Between the two of them, though, Johnson might have the best chance to compete for a spot on the Bears’ 53-man roster over the next few months before the 2026 season.
Johnson made four starts and played in 12 games at safety for the Packers as a seventh-round rookie in 2023, delivering solid production with his one interception, three pass breakups and 24 total tackles. After an influx of safety talent pushed him out of Green Bay in 2024, he defected to the Giants but defaulted into a largely special teams role.
While the Giants brought back Johnson for another chance in 2025, he landed on the physically unable to perform (PUP) list with an undisclosed injury at the start of camp and remained on the list until the following offseason, when New York parted ways.
Johnson has a lot to prove, but the Bears have an unsettled depth rotation at safety. Veteran free-agent signing Cam Lewis and Elijah Hicks are projected to win the two backup jobs behind free safety Coby Bryant and first-round rookie Dillon Thieneman, but neither one is locked into place, leaving things open for Johnson to earn a spot.
Bears Make Crafty Move With Tory Taylor to Sign Ex-Packers DB