The Chicago Bears signed Davontae Harris, a move they made after trying out multiple defenders the day prior. Harris has been in the NFL since 2018 but has bounced around.
He started his career with the Bengals in 2018, before playing the most snaps of his career in 2019 with the Denver Broncos. In 2019 he bounced from the Broncos to the Ravens and in 2021 played for both the Chargers and 49ers.
For his career, he has nine starts, and one came last year for the Chargers. Still, what stands out more is that he has 333 special teams snaps, something that could get him roster consideration.
Still, the biggest reason this move happened has to be linked to Thomas Graham. This signing came just days after the Chicago Bears admitted that Graham had a hamstring injury that was processing worse than they expected.
When the injury was expected to be a day or two, they were not worried, but now that it appears to be a multiple-week issue, they want to bring someone in who can take his snaps.
Signing someone like Harris is notable. The special team’s snaps show that if they want to fill the end of the roster with him, they certainly could. He is not just a training camp body. This could also highlight that Graham will likely not only be missing camp but will probably be missing into the regular season as well.
This is disappointing for Graham because he took a step forward last season, and in OTAs was taking first-team reps in the slot. However, an injury held him back early in 2021, and he sat out all of 2020 with COVID concerns. For one reason or the other, Graham has missed a lot of snaps in the past three seasons.
With Graham down the two biggest winners have been Tavon Young and Kindle Vildor. When Kyler Gordon plays outside, Young is a starter, but when Gordon moves inside, the team has Vildor starting. With Kyler Gordon, Jaylon Johnson, Tavon Young, and Kindle Vildor apparently locked onto the roster, the team will look to see if Harris can make it as the fifth cornerback.