One of the surprises of the offseason came when the Chicago Bears conducted a late shuffle of their wide receiver position last week. After final cuts, the team made two interesting moves. First, they claimed Nsimba Webster off waivers from San Francisco, a special teams ace who can help their return game. Then they pulled a move that raised a lot of eyebrows, signing former 1st round pick Breshad Perriman, recently cut by the Detroit Lions.

Few have traveled a longer road than him. A star at UCF, he became a member of one of the more disappointing wide receiver draft classes in 2015. The Baltimore Ravens took him early but he was immediately beset by injuries that robbed him of so many games. After three years of waiting, the Ravens were forced to let him go. Since then Perriman bounced around the league from Cleveland to Tampa Bay and New York. While most consider him a bust, the young receiver has finally shown signs of being a serviceable player.

One that apparently had the Bears’ attention long before 2021.

Head coach Matt Nagy was asked about Perriman during his recent press conference. Chicago had just completed their signing of him, waiving linebacker Josh Woods as a countermove. It was here Nagy revealed that this signing did not just pop up out of nowhere. The Bears had been monitoring the 27-year old for some time, awaiting an opportunity to see what he could do in their offense.

“We’ve been looking at him for a couple years now, so we’re pretty familiar with his path. I think the way you attack it is, number one, you always want to give these guys a fresh start, I think that’s pretty self-explanatory. The other part is making sure he can grasp the terminology. But you’ve just got to stay positive with them and then you find out why didn’t things go well here or there and why did things go well as these other spots, because I know when he was at Tampa Bay, that second part of the season he was really, really good.”

He isn’t lying. Down the stretch of 2019, Perriman looked like the 1st round pick he was for the first time. Over the final five games, he racked up 506 yards and five touchdowns. It is crazy to think that just two months prior he was inactive on game days. It felt like he finally landed in a system that fit him. One that turned him loose as a deep threat and had a quarterback in Jameis Winston who wasn’t afraid to attack down the field.

That is likely why the Bears like Breshad Perriman

Nagy runs an offensive system that is predicated on incorporating the deep ball. From the moment he took over in 2018, the head coach made it clear he wanted to attack down the field. The problem has been his lack of necessary pieces to make that work. He couldn’t bring Tyreek Hill with him from Kansas City. So he has tried finding other names to fill the void. Taylor Gabriel gave it a shot but couldn’t make it happen.

At last, it feels like the team has a stable of options tailor-made for this system. They already have Darnell Mooney who was their best deep threat in 2020 and an exciting talent. Then they signed speedsters Marquise Goodwin and Damiere Byrd in free agency a few months ago. It feels like Breshad Perriman is the cherry on the sundae. Somebody who takes an already fast receiver group and makes it kind of ridiculous.

Make no mistake. Nagy finds a way.

Few coaches love to incorporate every player on the depth chart, for better or worse, more than him. See Ryan Nall and Taquan Mizzell for example. There is no doubt he has visions of getting all of those guys on the field together. Just imagine four receivers with sub-4.4 speed lined up before the snap. The big-play potential would be enormous. Whether he’s confident Andy Dalton can take full advantage of them? That’s another story.