Bears Waive TE With Injury Designation to Add Marcedes Lewis

The Chicago Bears have waived one of their tight ends returning from the 2022 roster in order to clear space for the addition of veteran Marcedes Lewis.

According to the team’s official transaction wire for August 5, the Bears waived second-year tight end Chase Allen with an injury designation on Friday and officially signed Lewis — a 39-year-old blocking tight end — to their 90-man roster on a one-year deal.

Allen, 26, signed with the Bears as an undrafted free agent in 2022, but he was unable to make their initial 53-man roster after catching just two passes for six yards in his three preseason performances. While he still earned a spot on their practice squad, he saw no regular-season action and is still looking to play his first in-season NFL snaps.

Allen is no longer a member of the Bears’ 90-man roster, but he will revert back to their injured reserve list if he clears waived without being claimed. In the likely event that happens, Allen will either spend the entire 2023 season on injured reserve for the Bears or negotiate an injury settlement to be released later this year once he is healthy again.

The only other Bears player who is currently on an injury list is veteran wide receiver Dante Pettis, who was placed on the active/non-injury list at the start of training camp. The Bears were also missing Kyler Gordon, Jaquan Brisker, Tremaine Edmunds, Jack Sanborn, DeMarcus Walker and Nate Davis at Sunday’s practice, but head coach Matt Eberflus said the team is not concerned that any of their injuries are “long term.”

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Marcedes Lewis Offers Safety Net for Young Starting OTs

The addition of Lewis can be viewed as a twofold benefit for the Bears. For the tight end room, they gain the longest-playing pro ever at the position to help mentor their group and add a trustworthy leadership presence to their locker room. Due to his elite-level blocking abilities, the Bears also add training wheels (of sorts) for their young tackles.

Lewis has been one of the league’s best run-blocking tight ends over the past few years even as his pass-catching production has tapered off. More than a few times during his years in Green Bay, he helped spring Aaron Jones for big gains on the outside by muscling edge rushers into submission, including Nick Bosa and Jason Pierre-Paul.

With that type of blocking success, the Bears should be able to lean on Lewis as a safety net for their starting offensive tackles, second-year left tackle Braxton Jones and first-round rookie right tackle Darnell Wright.

The Bears have big expectations for both Jones and Wright heading into 2023. Jones did a quality job as a rookie left tackle in 2022, but he could solidify himself as a long-term solution on the blindside with more improvement as a blocker this year. As for Wright, he was the No. 10 overall pick for a reason and has been showing it with an impressive early showing in the first few weeks of training camp.

That said, anything less than great from the tackles could result in problems for the Bears. The next-up tackle in the group at the moment is third-year Larry Borom, who has starting experience but has also fallen out of favor with the current regime, to the point where he was no longer considered a starter in their eyes, anyways.

Rather than sink money into another veteran tackle, though, the Bears can use Lewis on the edges of their offensive tackle to add support against certain defensive fronts that may create problems or overwhelm their young tackles. In a perfect world, Wright and Jones will be able to handle most of the challenges thrown their way, but Lewis has done it before to assist the Packers when they were forced to rely on younger tackles.

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Bears Have Solidified Strong 3-Man Rotation at TE

With Lewis now bringing those talents to Chicago — in a familiar offense led by Luke Getsy, one of his former Packers coaches — the Bears have the potential to be extremely potent at the tight end position for their run-heavy scheme.

Cole Kmet and Robert Tonyan are by no means slouches in the blocking arena. In fact, Kmet finished just one spot behind Lewis in Pro Football Focus’ tight end run-blocking grades (65.1) for the 2022 season and played more than 200 more run-blocking snaps than Lewis. Together, though, the trio gives the Bears a lot of options for double-tight formations with Kmet and Tonyan both also capable of being vertical receiving threats.

If Kmet takes another step forward after signing a four-year, $50 million extension with the Bears and Tonyan plays more like he did in 2021 before his ACL tear, the Bears may wind up having one of the most deadly and well-rounded tight end groups in the NFL.

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