Let's cut straight to it, Get Sports Journals readers: if you saw "Bears sign long snapper Scott Daly off Saints' practice squad" floating around today, September 22, 2026, treat it with serious skepticism. No credible source confirms this transaction as of this writing. We couldn't verify it against live reporting - and there's a good reason why. The exact move everyone's referencing happened in 2022, not now.
Here's what actually went down back then. Reports dated August 30 - 31, 2022 - ESPN and the Chicago Tribune among them - confirmed the Bears signed long snapper Scott Daly off the New Orleans Saints' practice squad. The trigger was simple: Chicago's incumbent long snapper, Patrick Scales, landed on injured reserve, and the team needed a body who could snap a football reliably, immediately.
Daly fit the bill. A Notre Dame product, he'd been stashed on New Orleans' practice squad entering that 2022 season, and Chicago poached him for the active roster. Clean, standard, late-August roster mechanics.
So when a headline dated 2026 crosses your feed claiming the same Bears - Saints - Daly pipeline just fired again? That's not news. That's 2022 wearing a 2026 costume.
What Scott Daly's Career Actually Looks Like Since Then
This is where the 2026 claim falls apart completely - because Daly's post-Chicago résumé is well documented, and it takes him somewhere else entirely.
After his 2022 stint with the Bears, Daly built a real career elsewhere. For four straight seasons, he has been a working NFL long snapper - just never in Chicago.
| Period | Team | Context |
|---|---|---|
| 2022 | Chicago Bears | Signed off Saints' practice squad after Patrick Scales went on IR |
| 2022 - 2024 | Detroit Lions | Served as the Lions' long snapper across multiple seasons |
| 2025 offseason | New York Giants | Signed with the Giants, continuing his NFL journey in the NFC East |
| 2026 | - | No reported return to the Bears at any point |
Notice what's missing from that timeline? Any return to Chicago. He has not been reported as returning to the Bears at any point since 2022. There's no 2026 Bears reunion, no second practice-squad poaching, no reprising of the 2022 script.
📊 2022 - the only year the Bears - Saints - Daly practice-squad pipeline has ever fired - which is exactly why a 2026 version of the same headline should raise your eyebrows, not your hopes.
That's the core problem with projecting an old headline onto a new date: the player's actual career path contradicts it. Daly moved on. The Bears moved on. The only thing still connecting them is a four-year-old transaction that keeps getting recycled as fresh content.
Why This 2026 Claim Doesn't Survive Scrutiny - And How to Check It Yourself
The plain truth: there is no evidence of a 2026 Bears - Saints practice-squad poaching for Daly in available reporting. Taking a real 2022 headline and slapping a 2026 timestamp on it doesn't create a transaction - it creates an unsupported claim. And in a league where every roster move hits the wire within minutes, a phantom signing doesn't stay quiet for long.
A few things we can't verify, and you shouldn't state as fact:
- Contract values for any hypothetical Daly deal
- Current depth-chart status for Daly or the Bears' long snapper in 2026
- 2026 game statistics for Daly or Chicago's special teams unit
None of that is confirmed in the material reviewed, so publishing it would be guessing dressed up as reporting. That's not how we do it here.
Before You Cite Any September 2026 Roster Move
Do this instead:
