{"id":1054944,"date":"2026-11-14T21:33:14","date_gmt":"2026-11-14T21:33:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/1054944\/"},"modified":"2026-11-14T21:33:14","modified_gmt":"2026-11-14T21:33:14","slug":"bears-can-reunite-with-terell-smith-after-steelers-cut-cb","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/1054944\/","title":{"rendered":"Bears Can Reunite With Terell Smith After Steelers Cut CB"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\"Terell\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGetty\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Chicago Bears cornerback Terell Smith.<\/p>\n

The Chicago Bears<\/a> parted ways with cornerback Terell Smith<\/a> as part of the team\u2019s initial 53-man roster cuts at the end of August, which sent him on a journey across the NFL.<\/p>\n

The most recent stop on Smith\u2019s trip saw the Pittsburgh Steelers<\/a> cut ties with the former 2023 fifth-round draft pick. And as it happens, Chicago is in need of some secondary depth after failing to secure it ahead of the trade deadline earlier this week.<\/p>\n

Steelers activated DT Derrick Harmon from injured reserve and waived CB Terell Smith.<\/p>\n

\u201cSteelers activated DT Derrick Harmon from injured reserve and waived CB Terell Smith,\u201d Adam Schefter of ESPN reported<\/a> via X on Saturday, November 14.<\/p>\n

Terell Smith\u2019s Career in Chicago Started Out With Promise<\/p>\n

\n\"TerellGettyCornerback Terell Smith, formerly of the Chicago Bears.\n<\/p>\n

Smith started his career with Chicago as legitimate competition for Tyrique Stevenson, a former second-rounder who came into the Bears organization as part of the same class and eventually carved out a role for himself as the team\u2019s second outside cornerback alongside Jaylon Johnson.<\/p>\n

Across his first two seasons in Chicago, Smith appeared in 26 games and earned six starts. He tallied 10 pass breakups<\/a>, four tackles for loss, an interception and a forced fumble.<\/p>\n

However, injury struck during the preseason in 2025, when Smith suffered a torn patellar tendon in his right knee. Such injuries are difficult for players to come back from, particularly in the context of achieving their previous form.<\/p>\n

So even though Smith is still just 27 years old, his absence from the team for head coach Ben Johnson\u2019s entire first season at the helm and the lingering effects from the injury led to the cornerback\u2019s unemployment in early September.<\/p>\n

Smith initially joined the Washington Commanders practice squad on September 2. He eventually caught on with the Steelers in early October and played one game for Pittsburgh against the Cleveland Browns on November 1. Smith appeared on 12 special teams snaps in that contest but did not see the field on defense.<\/p>\n

Bears\u2019 Secondary in Need of More Depth<\/p>\n

\n\"BearsGettyChicago Bears cornerback Jaylon Johnson.\n<\/p>\n

Some media members and fans around the Bears organization were surprised that the team did not add Smith back to the practice squad after cutting him loose from the initial 53-man roster.<\/p>\n

In the interim, the Bears have dealt with significant injury concerns in the secondary and have also watched the aforementioned Stevenson and Johnson struggle to a meaningful degree to lock down the outside of the field across the defense\u2019s third level.<\/p>\n

The addition of All-Pro defensive tackle Jeffery Simmons at the trade deadline has certainly helped matters across the entirety of the unit, but the Bears remained candidates to ship out a fifth-round pick for someone like Philadelphia Eagles DB Riq Woolen this week to solidify the cornerback position.<\/p>\n

Smith, who has made $4.2 million<\/a> over the course of his career, doesn\u2019t have the resum\u00e9 Woolen does. However, he also doesn\u2019t have the paycheck. And Chicago won\u2019t have to send out any future draft assets to bring back a player in Smith who can join the practice squad and add depth to the Bears\u2019 roster where it is needed most.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tMax Dible<\/a> covers the NFL, NBA and MLB for Heavy.com, with a focus on the Green Bay Packers, Minnesota Vikings, Chicago Bears and Cleveland Browns. He covered local and statewide news as a reporter for West Hawaii Today and served as news director for BigIslandNow.com and Pacific Media Group’s family of Big Island radio stations before joining Heavy. More about Max Dible<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty Chicago Bears cornerback Terell Smith. The Chicago Bears parted ways with cornerback Terell Smith as part of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1054945,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2070],"tags":[374,692,391,2493,7,6],"class_list":["post-1054944","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-chicago-bears","tag-bears","tag-chicago","tag-chicago-bears","tag-chicagobears","tag-football","tag-nfl"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/117616941784789030","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1054944","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1054944"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1054944\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1054945"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1054944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1054944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1054944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}