Bear Digest

Bears get mix of good and bad news in Week 9 inactives vs. Bengals

Here's who's in and who's out in Week 9's game between the Chicago Bears and Cincinnati Bengals
Bryan Perez|
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Chicago Bears

The Chicago Bears and Cincinnati Bengals announced their lists of inactive players for Week 9's game, and the Bears received a bit of good news and bad news.

First, the bad news.

The Bears' defense will, in fact, face off against veteran QB Joe Flacco, whose status for Sunday has been in doubt all week.

As for the good news?

Caleb Williams doesn't have to worry about DE Trey Hendrickson running after him. He's officially inactive.

The Chicago Bears have several of their own players who won't suit up as well.

Here's who's out for Chicago: RB D’Andre Swift, WR Luther Burden III, RB Roschon Johnson, DE Dominique Robinson, LB Ruben Hyppolite, and QB Case Keenum.

The good news? Defensive end Austin Booker will make his 2025 season debut, and the Bears could use every bit of his help in the pass rush against Joe Flacco.

Chicago ranks 21st in sacks per game (2.0) and 27th in quarterback hits per game (4.1). The Bears are near-last place in passing touchdowns allowed per game (2.3 per game).

If the Bears can't get after Flacco, all-world wideout Ja'Marr Chase could go off.

And Ben Johnson knows it.

"Talk about a complete problem. (Chase) is that," Johnson said this week. "I don't know how much you can slow him down. I don't know anything that he doesn't do well. I turned on the run tape last night before I left, and he's down there blocking down the field for the runners. So, I think he's a complete receiver. I think it's all hands-on deck to try to slow him down. We've got to do a great job marrying up our rush and our coverage and making things as difficult as we possibly can for this offense."

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Bryan Perez
BRYAN PEREZ

Bryan Perez founded and operated Bears Talk, a Chicago sports blog. Prior to that, he covered the Bears for USA Today’s Bears Wire and NBC Sports Chicago. In addition to his Chicago Bears coverage, Perez is a respected member of NFL Draft media and was a past winner of The Huddle's Mock Draft competition. Bryan's past life includes time as a Northeast scout for the CFL's Ottawa Redblacks.

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