Roy Robertson-Harris Signs Bears Free Agent Tender Offer

Defensive line depth strengthened a bit at a cost of $3.259 million as Bears ponder whether to add more line help in the draft

Chicago Bears depth on the defensive line solidified a bit Wednesday when Roy Robertson-Harris officially signed his tender offer as a restricted free agent.

Robertson-Harris was tendered an offer of $3.259 million by the Bears at the outset of free agency.

Robertson-Harris made 30 tackles, three for loss, had 2 1/2 sacks and 10 quarterback hits last season. His career totals are 7 1/2 sacks and eight tackles for loss.

The tender offer given to Robertson-Harris allowed the Bears to match any offer or receive a second-round draft pick as compensation. If they had tendered him at the lowest level of $2.13 million they would have only retained right of refusal and received no compensation because Robertson-Harris was originally an undrafted player out of Texas-El Palso.

Robertson-Harris signed with the Bears in May before the 2016 season but had a heat-related illness in training camp and was placed on injured reserve the full season.

Last season Robertson-Harris saw his most playing time with starters on defense. He was on the field for 51% of the snaps largely due to the elbow injury suffered by Akiem Hicks. Robertson-Harris had been on the field for just 34% of snaps in 2018 and 20% in 2017.

When free agency began the Bears lost fellow defensive lineman Nick Williams to the Detroit Lions, so keeping Robertson-Harris was all the more important.

Besides Robertson-Harris, the other reserve defensive linemen on the roster now behind starters Akiem Hicks, Bilal Nichols and Eddie Goldman are Brent Urban and Abdullah Anderson. So it's possible they'll look to fortify this group in the draft.

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