Tag: Darion Clark

The Bears have released TE Darion Clark

The Bears have freed up a roster spot with the release of TE Darion Clark.

The Chicago Bears have freed up a roster spot with the release of tight end Darion Clark, the team announced Sunday night.

Clark, a 6-foot-6 former college basketball player with Charlotte, USC and Grand Canyon, is relatively inexperienced as a tight end. After making the transition to football in college, he participated in USC’s pro day as a tight end in March 2018.

The Bears signed Clark to a reserve/future contract back in January 2020. Last season, Clark spent the entire season on injured reserve after suffering a shoulder injury during training camp.

Chicago’s tight ends room is led by veteran Jimmy Graham and second-year pro Cole Kmet, whose role is expected to expand even more in 2021. J.P. Holtz, Jesper Horsted and undrafted rookie Scooter Harrington are also on the roster.

The Bears have now freed up a spot on their 90-man roster. We’ll see what they intend to do with that available spot.

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Bears sign K Cairo Santos, WR Alex Wesley

The Chicago Bears announced some roster moves Monday, including the additions of K Cairo Santos and WR Alex Wesley.

The Chicago Bears announced some roster moves Monday, including the signing of kicker Cairo Santos. Santos, who played for the Bears in two games back in 2017, converted 4-of-5 field goals during that span before suffering a season-ending groin injury.

Most recently, Santos started the season with the Tennessee Titans, but he was released after he went 0-for-4 in a Week 5 loss to the Buffalo Bills. In his six-year career, Santos has completed 108-of-134 field goals, good for 80.6 percent.

But it doesn’t sound like Santos’ addition is competition-related. It’s more of an insurance policy for kicker Eddy Pineiro, who’s nursing a groin injury right now.

“(Pineiro) does have a little bit of a groin [injury] that he’s dealing with right now,” Nagy told reporters Sunday.

The Bears also signed wide receiver Alex Wesley, who returns for his second stint with the team within the last month. Wesley spent the final two weeks of the 2019 season on Chicago’s practice squad before he signed a reserve/futures contract in late December. Wesley was waived July 27 as part of roster cut-downs.

Chicago also placed tight end Darion Clark on injured reserve and released former Green Bay Packers receiver Trevor Davis.

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9 Bears players in danger of being cut ahead of training camp

Let’s take a look at nine Bears players that are unlikely to survive those pre-training camp cuts ahead of Tuesday’s report date.

There have been a number of obstacles that the Chicago Bears have had to deal with during this unconventional offseason amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Whether that’s an entirely virtual offseason or absence of a preseason, which is a blow to late-round draft picks, undrafted free agents and other players looking to make an NFL roster.

As that wasn’t a big blow, NFLPA leadership informed players that rosters will be trimmed from 90 to 80 to start training camp. Which means the Bears need to cut 10 players by next Tuesday.

Chicago already parted ways with tight end Ben Braunecker on Thursday. Now they need to cut nine players ahead of Tuesday.

Let’s take a look at nine players that are in danger of being released by the Bears ahead of training camp.

S Kentrell Brice

Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports

With a crop of veteran safeties ahead of him, Kentrell Brice faces an uphill battle to lock down a roster spot. Eddie Jackson and Tashaun Gipson will likely be the starting safeties, with returning Bears Deon Bush and DeAndre Houston Carson serving as depth. And Brice, who was undrafted out of Louisiana Tech, might not make it to training camp given guys like free-agent addition Jordan Lucas and Sherrick McManis, both who bring more as special teams contributors.

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Bears 2020 training camp preview: Tight ends

While the Bears have a crowded TE room, there are ultimately just four roster spots up for grabs. Let’s take a look at the Bears TEs.

Chicago Bears training camp is less than three weeks away, which means it’s time to start looking ahead at the roster the team is bringing to Lake Forest.

Next up are the tight ends, which the entire NFL world knows Chicago boasts a ton of. While the Bears have a crowded tight end room, there are ultimately just four roster spots up for grabs, and three of those spots are all but locked up with Jimmy Graham, Cole Kmet and Demetrius Harris.

Let’s take a look at the tight ends heading into training camp.

Jimmy Graham

Cary Edmondson-USA TODAY Sports

The Bears signed veteran Jimmy Graham to a two-year deal earlier this offseason, which signaled the end of Trey Burton’s career in Chicago. Graham’s signing was heavily criticized given the $9 million in guaranteed money, but Ryan Pace believes he can give their tight ends room a boost in the passing game as the starting “U” tight end.

While Graham was a force in the league during his time with the New Orleans Saints and Seattle Seahawks, he didn’t have the same effect with the Green Bay Packers. Which could have something to do with how he was utilized — or lack there of — in Green Bay. Last season, Graham had 38 receptions for 447 yards and three touchdowns, which was more than all of Chicago’s tight ends combined in 2019.

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Bears waive TE Dax Raymond

The Bears trimmed their tight end group from 10 to 9 players with the release of undrafted free agent Dax Raymond on Monday.

When the 2020 NFL Draft concluded on Saturday evening, the Chicago Bears nearly had enough tight ends to field an entire offense following their selection of tight end Cole Kmet. The team had 10 players on their roster, but general manager Ryan Pace has already begun the process of pairing the position down.

On Monday morning, the team announced they were waiving tight end Dax Raymond, leaving nine players in the position group.

Raymond was signed as an undrafted free agent just one year ago and was a favorite to make the team considering the uncertainty at the tight end position. The former Utah State standout didn’t appear in a game for the Bears after getting injured during the preseason. He joined the practice squad in October before signing a futures deal with the team following the regular season finale in December.

Raymond’s release leaves nine tight ends on the roster for now, including Kmet, Ben Braunecker, Darion Clark, Jimmy Graham, Demetrius Harris, Jesper Horsted, J.P. Holtz, Eric Saubert, and Adam Shaheen.

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Bears sign TE Darion Clark to reserve/future contract

The Bears added depth at tight end with the signing of former college basketball player Darion Clark to a reserve/future contract.

The Chicago Bears added depth at tight end with the signing of Darion Clark to a reserve/future contract.

The 6-foot-6 Clark is a former college basketball player with Charlotte, USC and Grand Canyon. He participated in USC’s pro day as a tight end in March 2018.

 

Last week, the Bears signed nine players from their practice squad to reserve/future contracts:

  • WR Reggie Davis
  • WR Thomas Ives
  • WR Alex Wesley
  • TE Dax Raymond
  • OL Dino Boyd
  • OL Sam Mustipher
  • LB James Vaughters
  • DB Xavier Crawford
  • DB Stephen Denmark

Reserve/future contracts are signed for players not on an active roster by season’s end, which reserves them a spot on a team’s 90-man roster.

Clark joins Trey Burton, Adam Shaheen, Ben Braunecker, Jesper Horsted, J.P. Horsted, Eric Saubert, Bradley Sowell and Dax Raymond at tight end for the Bears.

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