Getty Ex-Bears receiver Javon Wims just signed a reserves deal with the Raiders.
Javon Wims has found a new home in Las Vegas, signing a reserve/futures contract with the Raiders, according to the NFL’s Jan. 19 waiver wire.
The former seventh-round draft pick for the Chicago Bears spent his first three seasons in the Windy City before the team waived him in August 2021. The Bears selected Wims in the seventh round (224 overall) out of Georgia in the 2018 NFL draft, and he played in 33 total games, starting seven.
The 6-foot-2, 221-pound wide receiver was primarily utilized on special teams and in blocking situations, as he was a high-quality blocker. In his three years with the team, Wims caught 28 passes on 56 targets for 266 yards and two touchdowns. His most productive year was in 2019 when he started six games and played in all 16, catching a career-high 18 passes for 186 yards and a score.
Multiple combative incidents, lack of on-field production and the addition and emergence of other receivers ultimately led to his release. He was signed to the Raiders practice squad in September of 2021, where he spent the entire season. Now, he’ll get a shot to make the Raiders’ roster again.
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Wims’ Time in Chicago Punctuated By Multiple Combative Incidents
A big and physical player, Wims became known more for that physicality than anything else. He got aggressive with his ex-teammate, cornerback Prince Amukamara, during an August 2019 team practice at Halas Hall. As reported by Brad Biggs of the Chicago Tribune, Wims threw a football at Amukamara before throwing four to five punches at the veteran corner’s helmet.
The team got past that incident, but Wims had another incident the following season that led to an ejection and suspension. He was ejected from a regular season game in 2020 after he punched New Orleans Saints defensive back C. J. Gardner-Johnson in the helmet. The NFL suspended Wims for two games as punishment for the incident.
We got a fight 💥👊 Wims got ejected after he throws a punch #NOvsCHI #BearsvsSaints
Gardner-Johnson appeared to rip Wims’ mouthpiece off his helmet and toss it to the turf, and Wims later said the Saints DB spit on him, according to Tom Pelissero of the NFL Network — which Gardner-Johnson subsequently denied, per ESPN.
Chicago chose to part ways with the wideout after the 2020 season, which also saw Wims drop a key pass that would have given the Bears life in their Wild Card loss to the New Orleans Saints:
Wims with the drop 😬
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Wims Will Get New Life With Raiders
“I think Javon has taken some of the deficiencies that he’s been kind of a little bit stubborn about denying probably I would say over the last couple years of things that he needs to work on and he’s really been open to coaching and very receptive of those ideas of what he needs to work on in regards to those deficiencies. And he really has,” former Bears wide receivers coach Mike Furrey said about Wims in 2020, via the Bears’ official website.
Things didn’t work out for him in Chicago, but Wims has enough abilities as a blocker and on special teams that he should be able to find a spot on a roster somewhere in the league. Vegas could be that place, but with a new regime coming in, that remains to be seen.
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