Chicago Bears NFL Trade and Roster Rumors 2017: Team Signs Josh Rounds, Releases Joel Bouagnon
Player movements have slowed to a crawl in the past few weeks, but now that training camp has started, teams are starting to make some minor moves before they cut their rosters down to the final 53 players.
The Chicago Bears already have a crowded backfield, but it seems that they have released a running back to sign another.
According to Adam Jahns of the Chicago Sun Times, the Bears have signed Josh Rounds after practice on Thursday, and he added that the team chose the former Tulane running back after trying out several others at camp. They also released former Northern Illinois running back Joel Bouagnon, per ESPN's Jeff Dickerson.
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Rounds will get the chance to show the Bears what he can do with both Jeremy Langford (ankle) and Benny Cunningham (neck) on the sidelines and he should take some of the workload off the other running backs on the team in practice. However, he's a longshot to make the Bears' final 53-man roster since they already have Langford, Cunningham, Jordan Howard, Tarik Cohen and Ka'Deem Careyand.
"Rounds registered a 4.61 40-yard dash at his pro day last April and wasn't a highly regarded prospect entering the draft. Still, he possesses enough positive traits for Pace and the rest of the front office to believe he deserves a chance at this point in training camp," Bryan Perez wrote in his column for Bears Wire.
"Assuming Rounds is still on the roster for the Bears' first preseason game on Aug. 10, he could flip the narrative from camp body to possible practice squad candidate with a strong performance," he added.
Rounds played at Tulane from 2012 to 2016, and rushed for 1,168 yards (5.2 average) and scored eight touchdowns during collegiate his career. He also caught a total of 40 passes (7.2 average) for 288 yards.
