The Chicago Bears wide receiver position has become a lot more competitive following this off-season. GM Ryan Poles added several new faces. D.J. Moore headlines the list, having come over in a trade from Carolina. Chase Claypool had already arrived from Pittsburgh a few months prior. Then the Bears drafted speedy Tyler Scott from Cincinnati in the 4th round. It’s a safe assumption those three, along with Darnell Mooney, are locks for the roster. That creates a considerable logjam for the final two spots. One person lost in the shuffle is Dante Pettis.
Chicago brought him back on another one-year deal. Given the expectations around him in 2022, his numbers aren’t bad at 19 catches for 245 yards and three touchdowns. The problem is he also had a fumble and four dropped passes. His status with Bears fans isn’t ideal, and it seems even autocorrect features on Twitter mobile are against him at this point, as Jacob Infante of Windy City Gridiron found out.
That probably isn’t the alter ego Pettis was going for. No football player wants to be described as dainty. Jokes aside, this slip-up is emblematic of the receiver’s tough reality.
Dante Pettis is caught in a no-mans-land.
He doesn’t offer as much special teams value as Velus Jones, who emerged as one of the better kick returners in the league last year. He also isn’t as good of a run blocker as Equanimeous St. Brown. His value on special teams is negligible. Zero tackles in a career-high 38 coverage snaps. The fact is Pettis’ only avenue onto the roster is as a receiver, and that isn’t going to happen with Moore, Claypool, Mooney, and Scott now ahead of him. One of them would have to get hurt, or he’d have to suddenly get a lot better at blocking or special teams.
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Either that, or he has to hope quarterback Justin Fields puts in a good word for him when the cuts start coming in this August. Dante Pettis did the best he could last season. He was better than some of the other options the Bears had. Things have changed. His opportunity to make a big impression is gone. Now it feels like he is clinging to a roster spot. Dante Pettis isn’t a terrible player. If he were, he’d have been out of the NFL years ago. Still, he is no longer up to this team’s standard.
Yes Nick, he’s obviously typed that phrase in a few times at least.
The real question is why did his phone auto correct it? like it already had Dainty penis in its auto correct data base already. I think dainty penis will hang in there till pre season cuz fields trusts him. But fields has been working out with velus this off season. So if it comes down to Velus and Dainty penis i think dainty is gone
Even keeping two of the very iffy non-starting WRs isn’t saying much. Unless something dramatic happens from one of them, there’s a pretty good chance what with FA, trades, and next years draft that they’ll all be gone by next year. That’s just the nature of what happens as the Bears move up in talent.
Don’t forget about N’keal Harry he’s probably a better blocker than ESB. Harry didn’t show much last year but like Claypool he arrived late via a trade with NE and now has a full off season working with Fields, and learning the offense. We should see a better version on him this year. No doubt this Bears WR group looks much better than it has in years, and night and day difference from last year when all we really had entering Training camp was Mooney. Have to give Poles credit, our WR room actually looks legit.
“Dainty Penis” yeah probably not the best autocorrect…gotta learn to proofread before posting I guess.