Let’s Take A Look At The Early Crop Of Undrafted Free Agents Signed By The Bears
The talent acquisition process doesn’t end when Mr. Irrelevant gets his named called at the NFL Draft. No, now we begin the process of tracking down the undrafted free agents, a group of players who seem to be more and more intriguing every single year.
Undrafted free agents are the ultimate sleepers and where good scouts and front offices can make a huge difference. For example, Cameron Meredith, the Chicago Bears’ most productive receiver last season, was an undrafted free agent out of Illinois State in 2015. Tony Romo, for another example, was signed by the Dallas Cowboys as an undrafted free agent in 2003, and the rest is history.
Here’s to the Bears finding a productive player (or two) out of their early crop of (undrafted) free-agent signings:
- Joel Bouagnon, RB Northern Illinois (via Brad Biggs)
- Rashaad Coward, OL Old Dominion (Instagram)
- Tanner Gentry, WR Wyoming (via Wyoming Athletics)
- Franko House, TE Ball State (Dakota Crawford)
- Dieugot Joseph, LT Florida International (Conference USA)
- Mitchell Kirsch, OL James Madison (Greg Madia report)
- Lance Lenoir, WR Western Illinois (Valley Football)
- Andy Phillips, K Utah (Twitter)
- Josh Rounds, RB Tulane (Tulane Football)
- Jhajuan Seales, WR Oklahoma State (Twitter)
- DeSean Smith, TE LSU (Andrew Lopez, NOLA.com)
- Mark Spelman, OL Illinois State (via Patrick Finley)
- Freddie Stevenson, FB Florida State (Twitter)
- Kermit Whitfield, WR Florida State (Twitter)
The NFL has had plenty of surprise success stories and the Bears are hoping one of the names above gets added to that list.