With Justin Fields in tow, re-shaping the wide receivers room should be one of the Bears’ priorities moving forward.
And while free agency’s big fish are off the board, there’s still time to find quality players who sneak under-the-radar.
Perhaps they’ve already found one such player:
We have signed WR Damiere Byrd to a one-year contract.@Hyundai | #DaBears https://t.co/fKipr4AKH6
— Chicago Bears (@ChicagoBears) May 4, 2021
Chicago is signing free agent receiver Damiere Byrd to a one-year deal. The 28-year-old receiver has five years of experience with the Panthers (2016-18), Cardinals (2019), and Patriots (2020. Byrd’s 2020 campaign in New England was a career-best. Byrd set career bests in targets (77), catches (47), receiving yards (604), and yards per reception (12.9). So don’t let those 604 receiving yards fool ya, they represent the second most on the team and 19.3 percent of what pass-catchers came away with last year.
In addition to his pass-catching exploits, Byrd has experience as a return man. Byrd has 14 punt and 14 kick returns. Back in 2017, he scored a return touchdown. The Bears don’t have much stability there, so I’d be curious to see if we’ll see a competition wouldn’t bet on Byrd having another career year. But rolling the dice on him as additional depth is a nice move. We’ll have more on Byrd later.