Chicago Bears training camp battle: Depth WR
As training camp is about to start for the Chicago Bears, one position that will be watched often is the wide receiver room. The skill players always get the love, but this year the room is as wide open as we have ever seen it.
Most thoughts are that Darnell Mooney is the top dog, and then Byron Pringle and Velus Jones will slot in behind him in one way or the other. However, the fourth, fifth, and possibly sixth wide receivers to make the roster are complete unknowns.
The Chicago Bears signed a group of veterans and while each one typically serves the role as last wide receiver on the depth chart in Chicago they will be competing for two or three spots, and some leeway in the pecking order.
David Moore, Dante Pettis, Tajae Sharpe, and Equanimeous St. Brown were all signed by the new regime and all have a shot to make the 2022 roster. The team also traded for N’Keal Harry, who is firmly in the mix, but not locked into anything. How should the order look heading into training camp?
4. Production before Chicago Bears
While ESB and Pettis were in the same draft, Moore and Sharpe were already in the NFL. It would be hard to compare raw production, but below you can see how they compare on a per-game basis.
| Rush | Rush | Rece | Rece | Rece | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rk | Player | From | To | Att | Yds | Rec | Yds | TD |
| 1 | N’Keal Harry | 2019 | 2021 | 0.2 | 1.5 | 1.7 | 18.1 | 0.1 |
| 2 | David Moore | 2017 | 2021 | 0.2 | 1.8 | 1.6 | 23.3 | 0.3 |
| 3 | Dante Pettis | 2018 | 2021 | 0.0 | -0.1 | 1.6 | 22.4 | 0.3 |
| 4 | Tajae Sharpe | 2016 | 2021 | 0.0 | 0.3 | 1.8 | 21.2 | 0.1 |
| 5 | Equanimeous St. Brown | 2018 | 2021 | 0.1 | 0.7 | 1.0 | 14.7 | 0.0 |
As noted, it is no surprise they are all so close, because in most cases they are on four separate teams filling the same role as low-end depth. Tajae Sharpe just edges out the group in catches, although the issue with him is that his career-high in catches came in 2016, and he also is third in yards.
David Moore leads the group in yards, and he and Pettis score at about the same rate on a per-game basis. You probably would have liked to see Harry a bit higher, but the fact that he is in line in catches, and a bit below in yards shows why he was acquired so cheaply. This leaves Equanimeous St. Brown as the low man when it comes to production. We will have some other categories that will break the group down further, though.