The Chicago Bears continued the cleaning of the back end of the roster with a seventh waiver claim. This means that seven players initially making the 53-man were let go. This addition was Ihmir Smith-Marsette, a wide receiver who was let go by the Chicago Bears.
What should Bears fans know about Smith-Marsette?
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Ihmir Smith-Marsette was a fifth-round rookie last season so he was working to keep his roster spot most weeks. The team kept him active for eight games, meaning he was a healthy scratch for nine of his rookie season games.
Ihmir Smith-Marsette was often wide receiver depth but found his way onto the field for 86 NFL snaps. On those, he ran 71 routes.
During that span, he spent about 39% in the slot and 61% of his snaps as an outside wide receiver. It is good to know that he can play both. In college, he moved into the slot at times, but that was just 17%.
Lastly, he caught only five of his six targets but turned that into 117 yards. Most of his are aided by a week 18 performance that saw him catch three passes for 100 yards. One interesting note is that his average depth of target was 21. That shows what type of player you are getting, as almost every target he saw was going long.
Overall, it makes sense that the Vikings let him go when you think that he was borderline active as a rookie, and the team saw a complete overhaul of the front office. The new staff was not in his corner for development. So, the hope for Chicago is that they have a versatile wideout who can move in and out of the slot and take the top off.
However, his best attribute to bring to Chicago may be his special teams.