its covid
if he's not protected and you're 2 qb's are deemed to be in close contact or have covid, the bears would have 0 qb's for their upcoming game....which this week, is a playoff game.
you cant bring in a qb during a week and have him available for the game that weekend (due to playbook, practice time and most importantly time required due to covid rules to be eligible to play).
it's why bray is protected but usually kept as far away as possible from the other two.
has nothing to do with his ability, future with the org. or anything else other than protecting the team and having someone QB the team if necessary.......otherwise we're looking at running the wildcat all game with patterson/montgomery