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The Chicago Bears are dipping into the international talent pool to add another offensive tackle to their 2023 offseason roster.
According to the team’s official transaction wire for May 4, the Bears were allocated Nigerian offensive tackle Roy Mbaeteka on Thursday through the NFL International Player Pathways program. The program is designed to provide an opportunity for elite international athletes interested in playing professional football in the NFL.
Mbaeteka, 22, is a 6-foot-8, 331-pound offensive tackle from Anambra, Nigeria, who is now entering his second year with the league’s IPP program. He originally signed with the New York Giants last April and spent the entire 2022 offseason with the team, seeing action in two preseason games and allowing four pressures and zero sacks over his 29 pass-blocking snaps. While the Giants offered him two weeklong stints on their practice squad in 2022, Mbaeteka has not played his first regular-season NFL snaps.
Mbaeteka was technically still on the commissioner’s exempt list as of May 5, but the Bears have already listed him (with a team picture) on their official website and have assigned him the No. 67 jersey. He was also listed as one of the participants for their 2023 rookie minicamp, which includes both rookies and other young roster hopefuls.
Bears Also Confirm 14 Undrafted Rookie Signings
The Bears also locked in 14 undrafted rookies ahead of the start of the rookie minicamp, including a few notables who could push for key positions on their depth chart in 2023.
One of the most impressive players on the UDFA list is former Syracuse kicker Andre Szmyt, who broke numerous program records for the Orange and was the winner of the 2018 Lou Groza Award given to the college football’s best kicker each season. The Vernon Hills, Illinois, native drew interest from the Bears during the pre-draft process and now has a chance to earn his stripes. If he can impress during rookie minicamp, he might have the opportunity to push veteran Cairo Santos for the starting job in 2023.
There is also some intrigue with linebacker Micah Baskerville out of LSU. He was an inconsistent player during his time with the Tigers and lacks some of the desired size (six feet, 221 pounds) to play the position, but the strong instincts and diagnostic skills he showed over his 46 career games give him some upside as a special teams player. A strong minicamp could go a long way in helping him carve out a depth role, too, behind the Bears’ reinvented linebacker corps — which added Tremaine Edmunds, T.J. Edwards and fifth-round rookie Noah Sewell to the position over the past two months.
The Bears’ full list of undrafted rookie signings includes defensive backs Justin Broiles (Oklahoma) and Macon Clark (Tulane), defensive lineman Jalen Harris (Arizona), linebackers Micah Baskerville (LSU) and Robert Burns (Connecticut), offensive linemen Nick Amoah (California-Davis), Gabriel Houy (Pittsburgh), Robert Haskins (USC), Lorenz Metz (Cincinnati), placekicker Andre Szmyt (Syracuse), quarterback Tyson Bagent (Shepherd), tight end Damien Caffrey (Stony Brook) and wide receivers Aron Cruikshank (Rutgers) and Thyrick Pitts (Delaware).
Bears Begin Signing Draft Picks to Rookie Contracts
As the Bears continue evaluating which undrafted rookies and tryout players might be worth taking into training camp with them in July, they have also begun to settle their initial business with their rookie draft picks and sign them to their first NFL contracts.
According to the team’s official transaction wire, the Bears signed four-year rookie deals with both of their fifth-round picks (Sewell and cornerback Terell Smith) and both of their seventh-rounders (defensive lineman Travis Bell and safety Kendall Williamson) on May 4. It is common for the Day 3 selections to be among the first rookies to sign as their contracts are less complicated to negotiate and contain fewer guarantees.
The Bears still have six more draft picks to sign, including first-round offensive tackle Darnell Wright, but none of them are prohibited from participating in the team’s rookie minicamp while their agents continue the negotiation process. Technically, a rookie could refuse to sign his contract and hold out for the entire 2023 season, giving them an opportunity to re-enter the draft in 2024, but there have been very few instances of that ever happening and would be inconceivable for any of the Bears’ incoming rookies.
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