Former Bears Back Leads 49ers to Super Bowl

Raheem Mostert was cut by the Bears and also was cut by five other NFL teams before sticking with the 49ers and on Sunday set a 49ers record with the second-most rushing yards in an NFL game ever

If Ryan Pace took a lot of flak for the AFC playoff game between the Chiefs and Texans when Patrick Mahomes and Deshaun Watson faced each other, the Super Bowl promises to be worse.

San Francisco 49ers GM John Lynch took picks from Pace in the trade to move up and get Mitchell Trubisky, and it's sure to come up during the buildup to the Super Bowl.

And now there's one other log for the fire.

49ers running back Raheem Mostert, the hero of the day in the NFC championship game Sunday for the 49ers in their win over the Green Bay Packers, was on the Bears practice squad and regular roster in 2016 and they cut him. Actually they cut him a couple times.

He had 17 special teams plays for the Bears in two games,

Mostert was on the field Sept. 25, 2016 against the Cowboys for nine special teams plays in a 31-17 Bears road loss, and then for eight special teams plays the next week at Soldier Field in a 17-14 win over the Lions. Then he was cut, added back to the practice squad and cut again. Later that season he had a 6-yard rush for San Francisco and played special teams in the regular-season finale.

And now he's in the Super Bowl after the 49ers beat the Packers 37-20.

Mostert wound up with 220 yards on 29 carries with four touchdowns in the NFC title game, the second most yards ever in the postseason, behind only 248 from Eric Dickerson against Dallas in the 1985 playoffs.

Mostert gained 772 yards and had eight touchdowns this season for the 49ers. San Francisco had signed him after the Bears cut him the last time, and had him doing almost nothing until this season. He had only 42 NFL carries until this year.

The Bears in 2016 had Jordan Howard as their starter under coach John Fox, and also had Jeremy Langford as a backup and Ka'Deem Carey as a backup. Actually, Fox would be more to blame than Pace since he's determining who is playing at the time.

And Pace and his player personnel staff should get credit for bringing in Mostert at all because he'd already been on practice squads and had been cut by: the Browns, the Dolphins, the Jets, the Eagles and the Ravens.

The Bears cut him for the last time on Nov. 24, 2016.

The kicker Pace cut in Chicago made a 54-yard field goal and a couple others in the game for San Francisco. 

That would be Robbie Gould.

Actually, former Bears did all the scoring Sunday for the 49ers as they made the Super Bowl.

 Twitter@BearsOnMaven