Tre McBride must have impressed in practice this season. The Chicago Bears are giving him a chance to make an impact.
McBride was signed after training camp and final cuts. He has spent only two weeks active, and has been inactive or on the practice squad for the majority of the season. However, heading into Week Six, Tre McBride is now set up to be the second outside wide receiver moving forward.
In Week Five, he was second amongst wide receivers in snaps. Coming from two snaps in the first five weeks, he played 43 snaps, three less than Markus Wheaton and ten more than Kendall Wright. Wright led the team in receiving, but McBride had one catch, and did have 14 more yards than Wheaton.
He was also called for an offensive pass interference, but it is fair to say he had a better game than Wheaton. With the team releasing Deonte Thompson, the player who entered week five leading the team in snaps played the team clearly does not see a need for him anymore.
They apparently saw enough in McBride to feel comfortable moving on from Thompson. It appears as though McBride will be taking the outside snaps across from Wheaton for the near future.
Some will mention that the corresponding move with the release of Thompson being Tanner Gentry could mean that Gentry is destined to take McBride’s role. However, there is a reason the team traded for McBride and released Gentry to sign him to the practice squad. There is a reason they always called McBride up to the roster before Gentry. They feel he is more game ready than Gentry. They felt so so much that they gave McBride a huge role in the debut of their rookie quarterback.
However, when you breakdown the skill sets of both of the receivers, Gentry and McBride could wind up fitting across from each other by the end of the season. In terms of skillset, McBride would thrive in a role similar to Cameron Meredith. Gentry is a splash player down the sidelines with a limited route tree. He could fit in a role similar to Markus Wheaton. The Bears came into the season thinking they could see Wheaton and Meredith thriving across from each other. With Meredith out and Wheaton struggling early into his two-year deal the team wind up looking at their youth in the same roles for the stretch run of the season.
Next: Adam Shaheen is progressing
It took McBride about four weeks to finally beat out a limited player such as Thompson. Could we see Gentry slowly take over the role of Wheaton in a similar way?