Ted Ginn Jr. Signing Puts Receivers, Return Men on Alert
The Bears' signing of Ted Ginn Jr. on Thursday is starting to make things uncomfortable for a few members of this team.
And that might be the intent of general manager Ryan Pace.
The signing was reported Thursday by Ian Rapoport of NFL Network.
It's not just the signing of Ginn but the fact they also signed a return man the day before as well, former Green Bay Packers and Oakland Raiders receiver Trevor Davis.
Ginn is near the end of a long career as a receiver and return man. He has a 10.1-yard average for punt returns and a 22.5-yard average on kick returns with four touchdowns on punt returns and three on kick returns.
In 2007, Ginn came into the league as a first-round draft pick with the Miami Dolphins and has made 409 receptions for 5,702 yards and 33 TDs. He played three seasons in Miami, three with San Francisco, had two stints with Carolina and three years, a year in Arizona and the last three years played for New Orleans.
Of course, Ginn's calling card is speed. He ran a 4.38-second 40-yard dash at the combine 14 years ago but he's now 35 years old.
The reason this and the Davis signing has to have some Bears wondering what's going on is their two return men are on the final year of their contracts and they've already got a full wide receivers room.
Young receivers like Javon Wims, Riley Ridley and rookie Darnell Mooney are going to need to work that much harder just to earn a roster spot.
Punt returner Tarik Cohen is in his fourth season and Cordarrelle Patterson signed for two years before the 2019 season.
Is it a case where the Bears are trying to send a message to the two return men? Perhaps, but Ginn hasn't really returned many kicks or punts the last two years.
Cohen last year suffered a precipitous dive in every statistical category except receptions. He caught a career-high 79 passes. Yet, he averaged only 5.8 yards a reception one year after averaging 10.2 yards a catch. As a rookie in 2017, he averaged 6.7 yards a catch.
Also, Cohen ran for only 213 yards on 64 attempts last year after a career-high 444 yards on 99 rushes in 2018.
Cohen is making a salary of $2.1 million this year after receiving a CBA-aided bump up in performance pay from $645,000 last year.
Patterson only had 28 touches on offense last year although he enjoyed another strong season returning kicks, averaging 29.5 yards a return with one touchdown. He's making $4.25 million in salary and $1.5 million in guaranteed bonus. The Bears could save $4.75 million by cutting Patterson either now or after June 1.
So there is plenty of reason to wonder why these return man signings are leading up to something, or whether they merely are sending a message to two players who can be explosive that much more is expected and they better come to training camp prepared to compete.
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