Ryan Pace has done a lot of good things for the Chicago Bears over the past five seasons. However, the young GM isn’t perfect. If one were to pinpoint a single position he has consistently misfired at to this point, it would have to be tight end. Every time he’s tried to make a significant investment in that area, it hasn’t worked out. He traded a 6th rounder for Khari Lee and got nothing. Dion Sims was an overpriced blocking tight end who couldn’t do that right. Trey Burton has proven a little too brittle since arriving in 2018. Yet nobody exemplifies these failures better than Adam Shaheen.
The big tight end out of Ashland arrived via the 2nd round in 2017. His mixture of size and speed had people making early comparisons to Rob Gronkowski. Hence the nickname “Baby Gronk.” The problem was Shaheen had only been playing football for a few years, transitioning from basketball during college. Then when he arrived in the NFL, he almost immediately began to experience health problems. Something that has continued to dog him through training camp this year.
In 24 career games, Shaheen has 24 catches for 225 yards and four TDs.
Hopes for him to figure things out are fading fast. Kevin Fishbain of The Athletic spoke to tight ends coach Kevin Gilbride about the situation and even he sounded like a man who had run out of options as to what could be done.
“With him, it’s always going to be the same,” Gilbride said. “It’s always putting himself in those positions in practice, which will lead him towards success in the game or not as much success as we want him to get. What I’ve been happy with the last, I’d say three, four weeks is he’s had much improved practices as far as his mental approach, which then transitions to his physical approach. That’s a good thing to see.”
Adam Shaheen window is closing fast with 11 games left
Currently, the Bears employ the services of no fewer than seven tight ends. Five on the current roster including Shaheen and two more on the practice squad. It’s clear as day the team is not satisfied with what they have at the position and are casting a wide net trying to find somebody who can be that playmaker they’ve lacked at the position. People talk about Mitch Trubisky running out of time to seize full control at quarterback. Make no mistake. It’s even worse for Shaheen.
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Chicago won’t have much incentive to keep him in 2020. He’ll be in the final year of his rookie contract and it would gain the team $1.27 million in cap space to cut or trade him. That is unless he somehow makes enough of an impression over the final 11 games to warrant keeping him around. Thus far he’s done no such thing. He’s an average blocker and is mostly invisible in the passing game. Anybody with common sense can predict the Bears may overhaul the position next spring with him being a piece of dead weight to get rid of.
There are three months left for him to change that perception.
