The Chicago Bears are re-signing a veteran running back who spent time with them in 2024 after losing one of their rookies to a season-ending injury.
According to the team’s official transaction wire, the Bears signed veteran running back Royce Freeman to their 90-man roster and placed undrafted rookie Deion Hankins on season-ending injured reserve in a pair of corresponding roster moves on Wednesday.
Freeman had worked out for the Bears on Tuesday with multiple other running backs.
Freeman, 29, signed with the Bears’ practice squad last December and spent roughly the final month of the 2024 regular season with the team, though he played no snaps. He has, however, played in 79 career games over his first seven seasons, rushing for 1,792 yards and 10 touchdowns and catching 86 passes for 532 yards and a touchdown.
Freeman should provide the Bears with more running back depth for their preseason finale against the Kansas City Chiefs this weekend, especially after losing Hankins.
Deion Hankins Loses Opportunity to Multiple Injuries
Hankins — whom the Bears signed as a UDFA in May — had been vying for a role as a reserve on their 2025 practice squad throughout training camp, rushing 10 times for 33 yards and catching a 4-yard touchdown pass in his first two preseason performances.
Unfortunately for his roster pursuit, Hankins had to exit early from Sunday’s preseason game against the Buffalo Bills due to an injury. Bears head coach Ben Johnson said that Hankins has injuries to both his shoulder and his quadriceps, but that the quad injury that he sustained against the Bills is what has landed him on the season-ending IR list.
With Hankins out of the running, the Bears could ask Ian Wheeler and Brittain Brown to handle the majority of the carries out of their backfield against the Chiefs on Friday. They are the only two backs left standing — besides the newly-signed Freeman — in the running back competition behind D’Andre Swift, Roschon Johnson, and Travis Homer.
Injuries Creating Problems for Bears’ Backfield Depth
The Bears might have a problem in their backfield ahead of the NFL roster cutdown.
Roschon Johnson, a 2023 fourth-round pick, has spent roughly two weeks sidelined with a foot injury that has kept him from playing at all in the Bears’ preseason games. Seventh-round rookie Kyle Monangai has also missed time recently with an undisclosed injury, sitting out Sunday night’s game against the Bills as well as this week’s practices.
While the Bears still have time to get both Johnson and Monangai right for the start of the regular season, their injuries raise concerns about Chicago’s depth at the position. The Bears have Swift locked into place as their starting running back, but Homer — who is more of a special-teams contributor — is their next-best depth option at the moment.
The Bears could always keep Wheeler or Brown on their 53-man roster, but neither one has played a regular-season NFL snap, which could prompt them to evaluate the market for better options — either a free-agent signing or a potential trade acquisition.
The league’s 53-man roster cut deadline is 4 p.m. ET next Tuesday, August 26.
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