COMPETITIVE SPIRIT
Pace shows true colors by looking into Bridgewater but likely will add QB to push, not replace, Trubisky ♦ Ex-Packers TE Graham added for 2 years, $16M
As Bears fans kvetched on Twitter about their team’s newest tight end Monday night, Dwyane Wade chimed in.
“Approved,” the Chicago native and retired NBA guard wrote about the signing, posting a green check-box emoji.
It was perfect symmetry. Bears fans unhappy about the team adding Jimmy Graham are worried this might be the football equivalent of the Bulls signing Wade in 2016 — a superstar moving to Chicago years after his prime.
The Bears are giving the former Packer a two-year deal. It’s worth $16 million with $9 million guaranteed, according to ESPN.
Graham, 33, becomes the oldest player on the Bears’ roster. He’s a five-time Pro Bowl player whose best season was in 2011, when he caught 99 passes for 1,310 yards for the Saints. Two years later, he had 86 catches for 1,215 yards. Bears general manager Ryan Pace had a front-row view of both seasons as a Saints executive.
Today, Graham fills a need. The Bears already have nine tight ends likely to be on their roster when the league calendar turns Wednesday, but Graham may be the only one they can trust.
Trey Burton, hampered for eight games last season and inactive for eight more as he failed to recover after sports hernia surgery, had 14 catches for 84 yards. Strangely, that made him the most productive tight end on the roster. The Bears hope that, after another surgery this offseason, Burton can return to form.
Adam Shaheen, a second-round pick in 2017, was no better. In eight games, he caught nine passes for 74 yards. It was clear by the time he was placed on injured reserve that he’d lost the trust of the coaching staff.
The Bears had been unabashed in their pursuit of a tight end, be it via free agency or the draft.
“I don’t think that’s a secret,” Pace said at the NFL Scouting Combine.
The Bears pursued the Falcons’ Austin Hooper before the Browns agreed to make him the highest-paid tight end in the NFL on Monday. Last month, the Bears also signed Demetrius Harris, a blocking tight end who once played for coach Matt Nagy during their time with the Chiefs.
Graham had an ordinary 38 catches, 447 yards and three touchdowns for the Packers last season. That’s still more production than the Bears got out of all the tight ends on their roster — 46 catches for 416 yards. Graham figures to stay healthy; he hasn’t missed a game since 2015, his first of three seasons with the Seahawks.
NOTE: In a move that seemed inevitable, given nationwide social distancing for COVID-19, the NFL announced Monday the draft will no longer take place in front of fans in Las Vegas. It still will run April 23-25 and air on TV.