Da Bear Cast Blog

In this entry, I will be breaking down the Bears wide receivers. A friend reminded me that the Bears wide receivers will most likely make or break this season. They struggled last year and look how the offense performed. Now with a year under this young WR group’s belt, they will have to play better.

Wide Receivers

Devin Aromashodu – The last name everyone was trying to pronounce late last season. Aromashodu was definitely a bright spot last year on the offense. He come onto the scene when Devin Hester was injured and then proved to everyone that he should of been starting instead of being a bench warmer. I’m sure Ron Turner and Lovie Smith were kicking themselves when they saw how well he played. Even with only two starts, he outplayed Devin Hester in my opinion. I don’t think the Bears ever established Hester as their number one receiver but it was quite obvious. If Aromashodu isn’t competing for the number one spot, I will be very surprised.

2009 Stats
Catches: 24
Yards: 298
Touchdowns:  4

Devin Hester - Had a disappointing season, hasn’t lived up to the hype created by the front office. He only managed to get three touchdowns and Devin Aromashodu was able to pull of four receiving touchdowns with only two starts. I really think transforming Hester into a wide out was a mistake. They should of kept him returning punts and kicks and maybe and I mean maybe partake in wild cat plays.  I just think they wasted too much talent by redshirting other wide receivers to make room for Hester.

2009 Stats
Catches: 57
Yards: 757
Touchdowns: 3

Johnny Knox – Knox was a rookie sensation in Chicago. His first year playing with the big boys and he was voted to the Pro Bowl. Pretty amazing if you think about it. When was the last time the Bears had a wide receiver in the pro bowl? Knox definitely surprised a lot last year, including plenty of Bears fans. He was a late round draft pick steal. I guess Jerry can find one or two players every draft. I think Knox will be something special down the road if he has at least 20-30 more receptions and around 900-1200 yards a year for the Bears. It’s definitely a reachable goal.

2009 Stats
Catches: 45
Yards: 527
Touchdowns: 5

Earl Bennett – Earl was redshirted his first year, just like a lot of other Bears players unfortunately. He definitely showed some promise last year, but he didn’t do well in the red zone. He seemed to disappear and that didn’t help the Bears at all. He will do better this season with Martz calling the plays instead of Turner.  He will be competing for Jay Cutler’s favorite target with Knox and Aromashodu.

2009 Stats
Catches: 54
Yards: 717
Touchdowns: 2

Rashied Davis – Former Arena footballer Rashied Davis has been the Bears his whole NFL career. Unfortunately he just hasn’t put up great numbers.  During his five year career with the Bears he has only accumulated 79 catches for 948 yards and 4 touchdowns. His career high was during the 2008 season with 35 catches for 445 yards and 2 touchdowns. Another downside to his performance is that he has dropped a lot of catchable balls. For that reason, I believe the Bears should let him go. He just hasn’t panned out with the Bears, but I don’t think a lot were expecting him to be  a number one wide out. So I wouldn’t call him a bust of a free agent pickup.

2009 Stats
Catches: 5
Yards: 35
Touchdowns: 0

Juaqin Iglesias – He was redshirted his first year with the Bears unfortunately and that shouldn’t of happened in my opinion. He should be contributing to the Bears offense this season though.

Stats from NFL.com

Undrafted Free Agents/ Practice Squad Members
Freddie Barnes – UDFA 2010
Eric Peterman – Practice Squad 2009
Vic Hall – UDFA 2010
Greg Mathews – UDFA 2010
Antonio Robinson – UDFA 2010

The only two players that really stand out in this group would have to be Eric Peterman and Freddie Barnes. Peterman was on the practice squad all of last year and I believe he might make the final roster, or he could just end up on the practice squad again. He’s not a bad wide receiver, I think he could be better than Rasheid Davis.  Now the other player I mentioned, Freddie Barnes, he could be something to watch. He set a few NCAA records and one of them was his 155 catch season with 19 touchdowns. So there’s no doubting his glue like hands could catch anything thrown at him. He has only one drawback though. He’s slow for a wide receiver and that’s why he wasn’t drafted. So he could end up being on the final roster as a back up WR/Special Teams player or on the practice squad.

Pre-Training Camp Depth Chart Prediction
Devin Aromashodu
Johnny Knox
Devin Hester
Earl Bennett
Juaquin Iglesias
Freddie Barnes/Eric Peterman

So that’s my pre-training camp depth chart prediction for the wide receivers. Leave me a comment about your prediction of the depth chart.

-GammaBears