Treasure from Discarded NFL Players

Without cap space, Bears GM Ryan Poles sought to supplement his roster with former promising players who are hoping to make the most of second chances.

Whether it's because of injuries, a bad play or game here or there or off-field situations, NFL players can frequently find their careers detoured.

A player displaying promise one day quickly becomes the next day's waiver fodder because teams do not wait. There are always more players coming along and time waits for no one in the league.

When former Falcons and Oilers coach Jerry Glanville coined the phrase "Not for long" as a achronym for NFL in a popular NFL Films video, he couldn't have been more accurate.

Because of this, at any given time there are potential contributors for teams floating around as street free agents or on waivers or unsigned free agents who fell through the cracks.

Personnel departments keep close watch on players they might have in their files from past drafts or games just in case they can find players like this.

The Bears entered this offseason without much cap space as they sought to rebuild, and one way to make the most of a bad situation is to bring in potential reclamation projects.

The roster is dotted with players gathered in off the street who once showed promise and then were rapidly discarded. 

In particular, the Bears have filled their wide receiver position up with players of this type behind Darnell Mooney, Byron Pringle, Velus Jones and possibly Equanimeous St. Brown, although it's very easy to make a case for St. Brown being one of the reclamation projects.

Here are the top reclamation projects the Bears have as they sort through looking for a few of these players to display talent they flashed with previous teams.

CB Lamar Jackson

Signed in January after the firing of Ryan Pace but before Poles took control. It's very difficult to dislike a cornerback who is 6-foot-3, 215 pounds. Jackson was undrafted out of Nebraska and was good enough in 2020 with the Jets to win a starting role. He wound up starting six games for the Jets as a rooke and played 13. A last-second touchdown pass he surrendered to Henry Ruggs in a late Raiders 31-28 comeback win seemed to bury him during the Jets regime of Adam Gase. Jackson allowed only 60.9% completions as a rookie according to Sportradar. However, he had a 128.4 passer rating against because he gave up four other TD passes besides the one to the Raiders. Last year the new Jets regime took over and discarded him. What could the Bears do with a 6-3, 215-pound cornerback who has been a starter? Maybe turning him into a safety would be an idea. If he can cover as a cornerback, who wouldn't want a defender that big on the outside? Either way, he's looking for some salvation now and with that height he could be an ideal fit in a zone-oriented scheme.

CB Greg Stroman

Another defensive back who had a promising start to his career quickly vanish. He made three starts and played 20 games in three years with Washington. As a rookie, he showed possibilities in those three starts and 15 total games played. However, he also made big rookie mistakes. Stroman had an interception, a forced fumble, four pass breakups, a fumble recovery and 38 tackles. He allowed 63.6% completions when targeted, but his passer rating against reflected big plays surrendered. He gave up three TD passes and had a 109.9 rating against. Stroman didn't start after 2018 and played sparingly in 2019 and 2020. He had a groin injury in 2019 camp and he aggravated it early in the season. So he went on IR. In 2020, he had a foot injury and went on injured reserve. Last year he started the season on the physically unable to perform list after that foot injury and was waived with an injury settlement. Later last season the Bills signed him after his foot injury had healed, but he didn't stick with Buffalo and Poles signed him.

At 5-11, 180, Stroman could be a challenger to provide special teams help at the very least.

T Shon Coleman

Poles knows offensive lineman so any time he signs one the player must be regarded as a potential contributor. However, he needed to get in his way-back machine to dig up Coleman, who is 30 years old and among the oldest players on the Bears roster. He hasn't played in a regular-season NFL game since starting every game for the 2017 Cleveland Browns. He played in a handful of games in 2016 without starting. At 6-foot-6, 310 pounds, he's ideal size for a tackle in this offense. Coleman played right tackle for the Browns and in that one season he flashed potential with team-high Pro Football Focus grades of 89.6 against Minnesota and 86.3 against the Bengals, although his overall grade for the year was much worse. Still, a 61.4 grade for a rookie tackle who started every game in his second year after getting no starts as a rooke is not half bad.

So what happened?

His career was derailed by injuries like so many others are, and not necessarily the serious type to threaten his future. Coleman in 2018 was traded to 49ers by the Browns, who were rebuilding as usual. The third-round Browns draft pick was acquired by San Francisco in September for a seventh-round conditional pick as Cleveland thought it had sufficient talented offensive linemen to discard a 2017 starter.

Coleman arrived late and didn't get onto the field for the 49ers in 2018. In 2019, he suffered an ankle injury and went on injured reserve before the year. In 2020, he opted out, then suffered a torn triceps in 2021 training camp and was waived injured by the Niners. The Colts had him briefly annd he was released without playing for them and then he camme to Chicago.

Is their something more to Coleman's career than he got the chance to show before those injuries? The Bears will find out in preseason. Beyond health and athletic ability, there's not much you can tell about linemen in OTAs, minicamp until they put on pads at training camp and play preseason games.

WR Dante Pettis

A series of injuries have helped slow a second-round 49ers draft pick, although. He has had great periods of inactivity in his career. 

Pettis started 28 games in three 49ers seasons, made 38 catches for a very respectable 576 yards. The most impressive aspect of his play was seven TD catches out of his 38 receptions, 18.4% TDs. But he sprained his left knee twice in 2018, then sprained a knee in 2019 and missed a few games. San Francisco gave up on him and waived him. He went to the Giants, made two more TD catches in 14 receptions for 163 yards in five games. Again an injury played a role as he had a left shoulder injury last year and went on season-ending injured reserve.

The Bears took a chance on him and the fact he is back with Bears receivers coach Tyke Tolbert could have played a part. Tolbert was receivers coach with the Giants.

Pettis, at 6-1, 195, was reported to have run 4.32 seconds in the 40-yard dash at college when he set an NCAA record with nine punt return TDs. Yet, he has never suffered the kind of injury in the NFL to diminishes speed, like an ACL tear or Achilles tear.

If ever anyone looked primed to take advantage of a second chance, it's him.

WR Tajae Sharpe

Now in his seventh year, the 6-2, 194-pound fifth-round draft pick of the Titans had a very promising start with 41 catches for 522 yards and two TDs in 2016. Then he missed all of 2017 with a stress fracture suffered in June, and aggravated it in preseason. When he returned from the right foot injury, Sharpe had just 26 catches for 316 yards and two TDs in 2018 and only 25 for 329 yards and four TDs in 2019. The Titans didn't sign him back after his rookie contract and he spent a brief time with the Vikings in 2020 then made 25 catches for just 230 yards last year for the Falcons.

Obviously he had the skills early and a stress fracture from four years ago is ancient history now. Is he ready to stand and fire at camp?

WR David Moore

A sort of poor man's Velus Jones. 

He's 6-foot, 219 pounds and a powerful, fast runner once he has the ball in his hands. He's had seven career drops, which is a bit of a problem considering he has 78 career catches.

Moore is a player who showed a real knack for adjusting and moving on the field to find throws from Russell Wilson with Seattle. He also showed a nose for the end zone, like Pettis. Moore's 78 catches for 1,163 yards included 13 touchdowns. A 16.6% TD rate for that many receptions is really high. They also used him occasionally to run the ball on end arounds or jet sweeps and he averaged 7.6 yards per 12 attempts.

Initially, the Seahawks cut him but put him on the practice squad, so he played in only one game as a rookie. Then he caught 26, 17 and 35 passes the next three seasons, including five, two and six TDs.

In 2020, Moore got off to such a good start he seemed headed for big things as an alternate target besides Tyler Lockett and D.K. Metcalf.

"It wasn't too long ago David Moore's time in Seattle was in doubt," FanNation's All Seahawks wrote. "Now, some four weeks and change later, it's hard to imagine what the Seahawks' offense would look like without him in 2020."

He started off catching 10 of the first 11 passes thrown his way for 173 yards and at the midpoint had 20 catches for a 15.8-yard average with four TDs. Then the entire thing went south on him as he struggled to 15 catches for only 101 yards and two TDs in the second half of the year.

Moore wasn't given another contract, signed with Carolina for two years and $4.75 million in free agency but was cut. He went to the practice squads for the Browns, Raiders, Broncos and Packers and got onto the 53-man for brief appearances with the Packers and Broncos in 2021 but did nothing.

The only injury he really had was a hairline arm fracture in 2019 and he toughed it out, going through it without going on IR.

For someone timed at 4.4 in the 40 and with his size/strength combination, giving him a shot at fourth or fifth receiver is a no-brainer and it's possible there is a great deal more production to uncover.

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