Bears Need New Speed Receiver in Draft And Not Marqise Lee
Maybe it's something about being a receiver in Chicago.
First Cordarrelle Patterson tried recruiting players on social media. He went for everyone from Stefon Diggs to Xavier Rhodes to Teddy Bridgewater. He even went after Tom Brady and Darius Slay.
Allen Robinson also has been a GM in a receiver's uniform. He tried to get safety Eric Berry to Chicago and tip-toed around safety Tony Jefferson of Baltimore.
Robinson on Monday was at it again with retweets of fans who suggested the Bears bring in his former teammate Marqise Lee, the receiver who has been released by Jacksonville.
Lee missed the entire 2018 season due to a preseason ACL tear, then missed 10 games in 2019 with knee soreness, and foot and shoulder injuries.
Lee's release on Monday came as no surprise because it had been widely reported in mid-February that the Jaguars planned to release him for salary cap reasons.
Whether the Bears would actually be interested in Lee is uncertain, quite possibly unlikely considering how little he played the last two years and how much money he made—he was to get $7.25 million in 2020, more even than Gabriel was.
So why would the Bears want to bring in someone injured for the last two seasons like Lee but not keep their own guy who was injured and merely had two concussions. Gabriel is costing them $2 million in dead cap money this year, and they want to bring in someone with an injury past and risk some more dead cap money?
The truth is the Bears are looking for receivers who stretch the field and Lee is a 4.52-second guy in the 40-yard dash, which is close to what they have in Javon Wims (4.53). Anthony Miller might even be faster. He couldn't run at the combine.
Lee experienced two good seasons, 2016 and 2017. His best year was a 63-catch, 851-yard effort with three touchdown catches in 2016. He had 56 receptions for 702 yards and three TDs in 2017. He's averaging 56.9% for a catch percentage, which is not good.
He's been over 60% in catch percentage once.
The Bears made a move like this already once. They signed Victory Cruz, who had a much more impressive receiving resume than Lee.
How did that one work out?
The ties are strong in the league between players and their old teammates.
If an NFL general manager started relying on advice of this type, maybe they should just let the players be the GMs, too.
Twitter: BearDigest@BearsOnMaven
