Rodney Adams Back for Practice Squad

Speed finds by Bears greatly alter the look of their wide receiver room and could make downfield passing game possible.

The most unpopular Bears roster cut had to be wide receiver Rodney Adams, after the story of his touchdown catch against Buffalo following the birth the night before of his daughter.

Adams is back with the Bears practice squad now and not on the regular roster. They've chosen to fill the receiver ranks with players who fill one key requirement.

They've been looking for speed, speed and more speed.

It's why they've agreed to a deal with Breshad Perriman and claimed Nsimba Webster off waivers from San Francisco.

"It creates a lot of depth for us," coach Matt Nagy said.

Perriman is an X-receiver type like Allen Robinson but with a history of questionable hands and greater speed. He has never made more than 36 receptions in a season.

"We’ve talked about him, I feel like, every year," Bears GM Ryan Pace said. "We've gone back and looked at our grades, we’ve got tons and tons of grades on him, from all of our coaches and all of our scouts. 

"I feel like we’ve talked about him every year. That’s been the one trait. He’s big, he’s 6-2, he can still run and that’s just continuing the speed and explosiveness in this offense."

Webster was at Thursday's final Bears practice of the week. He has 4.3-second 40-yard speed but his talents are more suited to special teams on returns and otherwise.

"He's a really good gunner, he's really good on kickoff coverage," Pace said. 

Perriman won't join the team until Monday and Nagy was asked if the reason for the delay is the five-day period required in signing an unvaccinated player.

"I don't know that for sure," Nagy said. "I think Monday is what I'm being told is when he can get in here."

Regardless, Perriman will arrive and then will need to be brought up to date on the offense. This can be no small task.

"Having those guys come in here will be good," Nagy said. "They have to learn the stuff (on offense). It takes a little bit of time. But I think our coaches will do a great job. 

"With that said, we understand with the guys we've got that are up, and the other guys on practice squad, we feel like we've added some speed. That's kinda the direction we wanted to go."

Adding Perriman and Webster gives the Bears five wide receivers who have run better than 4.4 seconds in the 40-yard dash. Darnell Mooney, Marquise Goodwin and Damiere Byrd have also been clocked this fast, Goodwin and Byrd both faster than 4.3.

The Bears two years ago had a receiver corps with one receiver who had run faster than 4.43 in the 40, and that was Cordarrelle Patterson. He was used mainly for kick returns and had only 33 catches total for two years.

Jon'Vea Johnson, Dazz Newsome and Isaiah Coulter are the receivers on the practice squad besides Adams.

It's easy to understand the emphasis on speed with Bears receivers considering the quarterback they drafted has a big arm and downfield passing accuracy.

The Bears plan to start striking deep, and  now the only question is whether they can build a line capable of providing time for Justin Fields or Andy Dalton to get the ball there.

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