The Chicago Bears have closed the book on a brief and unfinished chapter with defensive back Beanie Bishop, releasing him from the reserve/suspended list Tuesday with an injury settlement.
The move, reported on the NFL transaction wire, ends Bishop’s stay in Chicago before he ever appeared in a regular-season game for the club and frees a roster spot as the team turns its attention to Week 1.
Bishop arrived in August after the New Orleans Saints waived him at the end of July. Chicago signed him knowing he would miss the first three games of the 2026 season under a league suspension for a violation of the NFL’s substances of abuse policy.
The penalty, announced in March while he was still with New Orleans, did not prevent him from practicing or playing in the preseason. An injury later in camp changed the picture.
The Bears placed him on injured reserve at the end of August; the settlement now severs the remaining contractual ties and allows him to seek work elsewhere once he is healthy, though any new team would still have to account for the three-game suspension if it signed him during the regular season.
The 26-year-old’s NFL story began far more promisingly. After going undrafted out of West Virginia in 2024, Bishop signed with the Pittsburgh Steelers and made the 53-man roster.
He played all 17 games as a rookie, starting six, and finished with 45 tackles, two tackles for loss, seven passes defended, a half-sack, a fumble recovery and four interceptions. One of those picks came against Aaron Rodgers.
His October production—16 tackles, five pass breakups and three interceptions—earned him Defensive Rookie of the Month honors. For an undersized slot corner who had already bounced from Western Kentucky to Minnesota before landing in Morgantown, it was a genuine breakthrough.
Stability did not follow. Pittsburgh waived him at the end of 2025 training camp, re-signed him to the practice squad, then released him in early November.
The Saints claimed him for their practice squad a month later and gave him a reserve/future contract in January. He never played a regular-season snap in New Orleans. Chicago became the third organization in less than a year to take a look, only to reach the same conclusion once the injury and the looming suspension stacked up.
Bishop’s college résumé still recommends him as a nickel option who can create turnovers. Whether another team is willing to wait out the remaining games of his suspension and an injury recovery will determine if the former Mountaineer gets a fourth chance this fall.
For the Bears, the settlement is simply housekeeping: a short-term signing that never became a roster piece.
