Former fan-favorite Bears running back Tarik Cohen is looking to make an NFL comeback in 2023, but don’t count on a reunion in Chicago.
During an August 22 announcement stream on his Twitch channel, Cohen said he was completely healed from the myriad injuries that have kept him out of the NFL since early in the 2020 season and that he was talking to “live five or six teams right now” about potentially signing with him.
When the stream audience pushed him for hints about which teams, though, the 28-year-old made it crystal clear that a reunion with the Bears would not be happening
“Hey, Chicago don’t want me, man,” Cohen said. “I’m just going to hint that. That’s going to be the hint. The hint is that Chicago don’t want me. They let me go, bruh. They let me go in my ugly stage — you know when you’re growing up, that’s your ugly stage. They let me go in my ugly stage, man. Broke my heart, hurt my feelings. I had just bought a house, just bought a f****** house, and I got cut, sniped.”
Cohen made a fitting reference to the game he was streaming — Call of Duty: Warzone — in order to illustrate how he felt when general manager Ryan Poles and the new front-office regime cut him from the roster in March 2022.
“I had just bought a house and got sniped,” Cohen joked. “Imagine if you get full plates on Warzone 1 and then you get sniped in your head, automatically downed.”
Tarik Cohen Feels Good About Return: ‘I Can Do This’
If Cohen’s comeback decision feels like he just woke up one morning and decided it was time … well, that’s because that is exactly how it happened, in Cohen’s own words.
“I’ll tell you how it went down. This all happened [Monday] basically,” Cohen said in his Twitch channel. “In my mind, I woke up yesterday and I was like, ‘I can do this s***, I feel like I can do this s***.’ The way my body is feeling, I’ve been running, I’ve been cutting, I’ve been doing backflips in the pool, backflips on land, running around, working out. I’m like, ‘I can do this s***.’ So boom, I texted my agent. I’m like, ‘Hit this team up’ — I’m not going to tell you the team yet — I’m like, ‘Hit this team up, ask them if they need me or could use my services.'”
Cohen has not played since getting tackled on a punt return against the Atlanta Falcons in the third week of the 2020 regular season, tearing his ACL and MCL and sustaining a fracture to his tibial plateau on the play. He ended up missing the remainder of the 2020 season as well as the entire 2021 season as he tried to recover from the injuries.
Cohen Was Among 1st Veterans Cut in Ryan Poles Era
While Cohen was still under contract with the Bears for another two seasons heading into the 2022 offseason, Poles went on a two-day contract-clearing spree just before the start of the new league year and made Cohen one of his cap casualties, opting to cut ties with the recovering running back before $2.5 million of his $3.9 million base salary would have become fully guaranteed on the third day of the new year.
The Bears also traded All-Pro outside linebacker Khalil Mack and cut both defensive tackle Eddie Goldman and linebacker Danny Trevathan in that two-day period.
In all likelihood, Cohen would have gotten an opportunity somewhere in 2022 if he had remained healthy, but things took another rough turn two months after his release when — according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter — he ruptured his Achilles tendon during a workout on Instagram Live. The injury sidelined him for a second consecutive season.
Still, Cohen sounds confident that he has put his injuries behind him and is eager to earn a fresh start with another NFL team in the upcoming season. And considering the exciting years that Cohen brought to Chicago, Bears fans are likely rooting for him, too.
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Tarik Cohen Sounds Off on Potential for Reunion With Bears