THE CBA CAPS IT AT THREE — IS A QUIET BEARS DB RUNNING OUT OF CHANCES? BEARS NEWS

Buried inside this week's Chicago Bears roster tracker is a rule almost nobody explained: cornerback Nick McCloud and defensive lineman Marcus Davenport were both elevated from the practice squad for the Week 4 game against the Jets on October 3, reverting automatically without clearing waivers, exactly as the NFL's labor agreement allows. What got left out is that each player only gets three of those free elevations per season under Article 33 of the CBA, after which the club has to either sign him outright or risk losing him to waivers. McCloud has already spent one of his three heading into Sunday's Week 5 trip to Lambeau Field against the Green Bay Packers, while Davenport, a seventy-seven game NFL veteran with twenty-five career sacks, was released from the practice squad just two days after his own elevation. The same week also brought the practice squad signings of Elijah Jones and the returning Scotty Miller, the release of De'Antre Prince, and an offensive line situation around Braxton Jones that matters more given Caleb Williams's hamstring injury. This video walks through what that elevation ceiling actually means for a player on the roster bubble right before the toughest game on Chicago's schedule so far. — SOURCES — Bears Roster Tracker: Every Move Made Ahead of Week 5 (Yardbarker, Sahil Goswami, October 10, 2026): https://www.yardbarker.com/nfl/articl... NFL Collective Bargaining Agreement, Article 33, Section 5 (practice squad elevation limits and waiver exemption, via Over The Cap): https://overthecap.com/collective-bar... Narration are AI generated. #ChicagoBears #BearsNews #NFLNews