Chicago Bears sign Kevin Pierre-Louis

The Chicago Bears added some depth to their linebacker group with Kevin Pierre-Louis

When the Chicago Bears traded for a kicker, it was not surprising. However, not many were calling for a depth inside linebacker to be signed any time soon.

Still, with Danny Trevathan another year older and depth being somewhat limited, the Bears made a move to bolster their depth and provide competition in training camp. The Bears are always fine-tuning their roster and they may think they have a find in Kevin Pierre-Louis.

Pierre-Louis came up in the Seattle Seahawks defense. He was drafted by Seattle in round four. He has always earned rotational defensive snaps, but with Bobby Wagner, K.J. Wright and others, he was more of a depth player than a starter.

However, he spent 2014-2016 in Seattle and kept a job due to special teams value. In 2017, the team moved on and Pierre-Louis wound up in Kansas City with Matt Nagy. Pierre-Louis played less than 300 snaps, but it was the most he had seen the field on defense in his career.

Still, the Chiefs lost their first playoff game, and while they did not improve their defense from there, they did move on from Pierre-Louis. Pierre-Louis caught on with the New York Jets in 2018 but saw less time than ever before. This time dealing with an injury.

After struggling with Kansas City in his only starting time, and being injured in his last stint with the Jets, Pierre-Louis became a forgotten player. However, Nagy remembers his special team’s value and professionalism and sees him adding depth to the group. They would not sign a veteran like Pierre-Louis this late unless they thought he could compete.

Roquan Smith and Danny Trevathan are embedded on the roster, but Nick Kwiatoski is a free agent next year and Joel Iyiegbuniwe is completely unproven and spent some of his rookie season injured. Iggy is supposed to be a special teams stud, but the team may have brought in Pierre-Louis to push him, or provide another option if he is not ready for the NFL grind.

Josh Woods is another player who may have made the roster as a fifth inside linebacker and special teams stud. It is now even tougher to envision him making that jump. For now, peg Pierre-Louis right around the 54th man on the roster, with a chance to jump onto the 53-man if he has a strong spring.