The Chicago Bears have nine tight ends on the roster competing for four spots. Here is a preview of the tight end depth chart battle.
The common joke around the Chicago Bears this offseason has been the number of tight ends the Bears have on the roster. The real reason why the Bears have done this is an attempt by Ryan Pace to correct his mistakes in the past. He tried to create his tight end group of the future by drafting Adam Shaheen in the second round and by making Trey Burton the ‘U’ tight end of the future. Both have been failed attempts.
Now, Pace has added a lot of tight ends and cut ties with Burton. Shaheen is on the roster, but he doesn’t have a spot guaranteed. With all the current tight ends, it doesn’t look good for him.
As it is fairly odd that the Bears currently have nine tight ends, it makes sense. Tight end was the biggest struggle last season as they didn’t have one tight end crack 100 yards during the whole season. The lack of tight end help led to the Bears never running their offense out of 12 personnel, which Nagy likes to do, and hurt their offense greatly.
Clearly, the nine tight ends won’t make the roster. Only four will likely make it since the Bears run two different tight ends and could use a backup for both positions. They also sometimes run a fullback, so a tight end that can play fullback will also be valuable to them.
Here are the different tiers of tight ends fighting for the job.