Shaheen, McManis go on IR; Horsted gets ball from 1st TD
The Bears had little in the way of a holiday weekend because they must turn around from Thursday’s 24-20 victory over the Lions to focus on Thursday’s game against the Cowboys at Soldier Field.
Here are three things we learned Saturday as the players regrouped.
1. The Bears placed tight end Adam Shaheen and safety Sherrick McManis on injured reserve.
Offensive lineman Corey Levin and tight end Eric Saubert signed with the Bears to take their roster spots.
Levin, a sixth-round draft pick by the Titans in 2017, was on the Broncos practice squad. He started one game with the Titans in 2018.
The Falcons drafted Saubert, who went to Hoffman Estates High School and Drake, in the fifth round in 2017. He played in 30 games with one start over two seasons in Atlanta and was on the Raiders practice squad this season.
The roster moves mark the end of another disappointing season for Shaheen, a second-round draft pick in 2017.
He played in eight games before the Bears benched him for performance reasons in the first meeting with the Lions on Nov. 10. He showed up on the injury report the next week with a foot injury, about which coach Matt Nagy has given few details.
It’s the second straight season Shaheen is on injured reserve. He played in six games with four starts in 2018 after he was sidelined by a foot/ankle injury. He has 26 catches for 249 yards and four touchdowns over parts of three seasons.
McManis, a 10-year veteran and a special teams stalwart, injured his groin against the Giants on Sunday. He had a huge forced fumble near the goal line on defense Oct. 6 against the Raiders.
2. Jesper Horsted got the football from his first touchdown catch, but he gave most of the credit to Mitch Trubisky.
Horsted, an undrafted rookie from Princeton, has had one catch in each of his first two NFL games, and the second was huge. With less than five minutes to play in the third quarter against the Lions, he streaked past safeties Will Harris and Tracy Walker and made a diving 18-yard touchdown catch to tie the game at 17-17.
“I attribute most of that to Mitch, to be honest with you,” Horsted said. “I ran the route how I was supposed to and how I was taught to do. But there was a pretty small window there, and he fit it right where it needs to be. It was easy for me to just grab that ball and roll up with it.”
The Bears tight end group is down three players: Trey Burton and Adam Shaheen, both on injured reserve, and Ben Braunecker, who has a concussion. So they promoted Horsted from the practice squad Nov. 20.
He called Sunday’s catch “a good start” for what he wants to do with his career, noting he needs to clean up several things on offense and special teams.
His phone after the game was full of congratulations.
“There were a lot of people coming out, people I haven’t heard (from) since pre-K and stuff like that,” he said. “But it’s really cool. I was glad to hear from people. People were just really happy for me.”
3. Eddie Jackson credits Amari Cooper for helping him develop his coverage skills.
The Bears safety and the Cowboys wide receiver were college teammates at Alabama, and Jackson remembers some tough practice battles in his first year.
“There was one time in practice he was killing me,” Jackson said. “I was a freshman. I looked back at Coach (Nick) Saban like, ‘All right, man.’ (He said:) ‘Don’t look back at me, Eddie. I’m not going to take him off you.’ … It really was him that got my coverage skills good like this.”
The former teammates could face off Thursday when the Cowboys visit Soldier Field, if Cooper can play. The three-time Pro Bowl selection has 64 catches for 971 yards and seven touchdowns this season but took a hit to his left knee Thursday against the Bills. He returned to the game, and the Dallas Morning News reported an MRI showed no structural damage.
Jackson had his first interception of the year against the Lions.