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Bears Can Begin Sam Roush Experiment Now After Officially Signing Deal

The Bears have plenty of ideas for ways to use a third tight end according to offensive coordinator Press Taylor, and Sam Roush has a skillset to let them explore these.
Gene Chamberlain|
Sam Roush warms up during rookie minicamp at the Payton Center.
Sam Roush warms up during rookie minicamp at the Payton Center. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

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Chicago Bears

Bears tight end Sam Roush became the last draft pick from the team's 2026 class to sign a contract on Friday, all but ending a bit of a league logjam with third-round picks.

There was never any doubt the Stanford product would sign before he would officially become a holdout. Holdouts with draft picks almost never happen in this era of the salary cap. It's been a long time since any draft picks for the Bears held out who weren't first-round picks.

However, Roush was in part of a logjam at the top of Round 3 as early third-round players waited to see how much of a guarantee the first pick in that round would get. Agents could then adjust accordingly. Carson Beck, the Georgia quarterback, was the first pick in Round 3.

Tyler Onyedim, Keyron Crawford and Markel Bell had all remained unsigned after Beck. Roush went unsigned as well, as the fifth pick of that round and 69th overall. However, Onyedim, Crawford and Bell all signed recently even as Beck has remained unsigned. It only made sense Roush would be under contract, as well.

His deal is for $7.3 million total, according to ESPN's Adam Schefter. Spotrac.com had projected his signing bonus at $1.796 million on the standard four-year deal.

Roush's strength is blocking and he should fit in well as a possible third tight end in short-yardage situations or the red zonie. He caught 119 career passes for 1,201 yards with four TDs while at Stanford, and won the school's Tommy Vardell Award which is for players who display excellence in both athletics and academics. He had 34 starts and 48 games total.

No doubt Ben Johnson plans to use him much the way the Rams did last year, by deploying plenty of 13-personnel or three tight end packages. He might even get into the 12-personnel packages at times when Colston Loveland moves into the slot wide receiver position.

"That was something that we felt like our offense was trending to as the season went," Bears offensive coordinator Press Taylor said. "So, you see a role from 13 personnel there with the way (former Bears TE) Durham (Smythe) played. Durham was a very experienced player that could do a lot of different things.

"We'll figure out what Sam's strengths are, how he complements those other tight ends, and then be able to use as many tight ends or as many different personnel groupings as we need to attack whatever defense we're seeing that week.”

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Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

Gene Chamberlain has covered the Chicago Bears full time as a beat writer since 1994 and prior to this on a part-time basis for 10 years. He covered the Bears as a beat writer for Suburban Chicago Newspapers, the Daily Southtown, Copley News Service and has been a contributor for the Daily Herald, the Associated Press, Bear Report, CBS Sports.com and The Sporting News. He also has worked a prep sports writer for Tribune Newspapers and Sun-Times newspapers.

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