After a woeful Raiders tenure, Alex Leatherwood will have a second chance via the NFL’s waiver system. The Bears put in a claim for the former first-round pick, Field Yates of ESPN.com tweets.
The Raiders bailed on Leatherwood after one season, marking a shocking freefall for last year’s No. 17 overall pick. The Bears, however, have also run into extensive O-line uncertainty. The rebuilding team will take a chance on the former Alabama prospect. Leatherwood’s signing bonus is the Raiders’ responsibility, leaving considerable dead money on Las Vegas’ cap sheet. But the Bears are now responsible for $5.9MM in Leatherwood salary.
Chicago, which changed up its roster considerably as it transitioned to a new GM-HC pairing this offseason, made five more waiver claims Wednesday. Defensive tackle Armon Watts, defensive back Josh Blackwell, defensive end Kingsley Jonathan, linebacker Sterling Weatherford and tight end Trevon Wesco will be en route to the Windy City as well, Yates tweets. The Bears’ six waiver claims are a league-high total this year.
This marks quite a haul for Chicago, which added former starters from Las Vegas and Minnesota. Watts started nine games for the Vikings last season, replacing the injured Michael Pierce, but the team changed defensive schemes this offseason and made a trade for former Texans second-round defensive tackle Ross Blacklock on Tuesday. That led Watts off the roster. But he will be back in a 4-3 scheme under Matt Eberflus, whose team cleared some D-tackle space by releasing Mario Edwards on Tuesday.
Viewed as a reach in last year’s first round, Leatherwood did not justify his draft slot when deployed at right tackle or right guard for the Raiders last season. The staff that drafted Leatherwood quickly moved him off right tackle, but Pro Football Focus rated him as one of the league’s worst guards. Despite the Raiders facing a few questions on their offensive line and losing Brandon Parker for the season, their new regime cut bait after trying Leatherwood at tackle again in training camp.
The Bears are expected to start fifth-round rookie Braxton Jones at left tackle, and they have 2021 fifth-rounder Larry Borom on the right side. Riley Reiff, who signed with the team shortly before camp, is also in the tackle picture. The team moved 2021 second-rounder Teven Jenkins from tackle to guard late this offseason, and while Jenkins appeared in trade rumors, he is on the roster and may well start the season at the new position. Leatherwood, his early-career struggles notwithstanding, may now also be a factor at that spot.
Raiders off the hook for the salary now too?
Salary, but not signing bonus. (7 million and change for this season)
It’s easy to be down on Leatherwood after last year, but it’s also not his fault he was way over-drafted, dropped into a dysfunctional organization, and then inherited by a new regime and new system after one year. He might not ever be a good starter, but it’s not like he’s Isaiah Wilson either.
Dysfunctional organization that made the playoffs?
I think he is probably referring to the drama surrounding Gruden, Davis and the transition to a third head coach in just over a year. That was certainly a dysfunctional situation for a young player that clearly needed a more stable environment.
Wouldn’t be the first. And it’s not like they were a serious contender. They had to fire their coach mid season, two of their last three first round picks were released for felony reasons, and their last six first rounders are busts, unless you want to chalk up a running back whose fifth year option they didn’t pick up as a win. Yeah, it’s been a dysfunctional organization. And now they’re counting on a guy who flamed out in Denver and flaked on Indianapolis in spectacular fashion to captain the ship. Don’t get me wrong, McDaniels could well succeed, but this is hardly a model franchise. Not to mention them cutting all their decent veteran linemen other than Miller loose, meaning Leatherwood was supposed to learn from who?
He went from 1 dysfunctional organization to another dysfunctional organization.
Well, this one is getting a look at him with much less investment. And hopefully for them, Getsy learned a thing or two about developing linemen in Green Bay.
Much less investment meaning they are picking up the tab which saves raiders $$$. Say what you want about gruden but the win totals increased each year he was there. And for every poor draft pick they had later round picks like crosby and others. Not as white and black as you state.
Less investment meaning they didn’t burn a draft pick on him AND the Raiders paid more than half his rookie deal. He’s got less than $6 million due over the next three years.
But I don’t mean it to be all black and white. Gruden certainly had his strengths, and his system takes time to implement. Crosby and Renfrow were great picks. Now imagine if they had just drafted with the consensus in the early rounds or even just traded down to take those guys. They left so, so much meat on the bone by making wild reaches up top. If they had gone chalk with those first rounders and still made those later picks, the roster would be a whole other story.
That’s right! It’s Black and Silver!
I’ve never heard someone say “not as white and black” as you state. It’s almost always black and white.
I say that to say this…nothing. Just a benign observation.
But sure, this was a baffling addition. Leatherwood looked so bad last year, if he hadn’t been from ‘Bama, he wouldn’t have been drafted until Day3 and then he’d likely still be on the roster.
Most people thought he was a second rounder a year ago, lots of offensive linemen take time to develop these days, he only costs $6 million for three seasons, and the Bears have plenty of room on their roster and in their OL room to take fliers. It’s not baffling.
Yeah…projected to be a 2nd round pick because he was an Alabama OL…but even then it was obvious to see the warts and he was atrocious as a rookie.
The just seems like the Bears claiming a guy nobody else was going to and adding him because they’d heard of him.
There were better OL available. It’d be troubling to me they took the guy people heard of over the most worthy players.
They went for the upside play, which he still has more of than the other available option. He was not just a second round prospect because of Alabama. His build, strength, and performance against SEC competition were all strong. Lots of offensive linemen stink as rookies. Andrew Thomas turned out to be very good, despite a rough rookie year. Leatherwood isn’t that caliber of prospect, but it’s silly to think what he showed in year one is all he can ever be. He’s absolutely worth a three year, $6 million dart throw for a rebuilding team with a thin roster and very little future money committed.
He didn’t have more upside than Caleb Jones. That I’d put money on.
Lol. Ok.
Laugh all you’d like…Leatherwood sucks and can’t play OT.
Jones is 6’9, 370 and can actually move. His upside is enormous. His downside is that he’d gotten up to over 400LBs before. If he keeps his weight down, he’ll be a starting LT in the NFL.
What’s Leatherwood’s upside? Maybe, might be a solid RG?
LOL…OK…
Who did they cut to fit these guys on the roster?
Leatherwood just 23 years old..must have displayed poor conditioning and work effort. Maybe this is a wake up call for the young man or he’ll take his money and be a sad footnote 5 years from now. On the others they claimed…looks like Weatherford and Johnathan were players they liked in the mdi to late rounds of the draft and just didn’t get them. I like this management team better than the Pace era.
I think it was more than weight and conditioning. He’s just not that talented of an OL.
But, we’ll see.
Caleb Jones fit that offense really well and he looked incredible this pre-season. I’d be surprised if he’s not protected and then added to the 53 man.
That was the most surprising 53 man cut I’ve seen in a decade(for the Packers).
I’m not at all surprised that the Bears made 6 waiver claims. What was amazing to me was that none of them was a WR.
Agreed. I hope they’re workin’ on something we don’t know about.
At least the Bears have killer rap, the Super Bowl Shuffle! Just 37 years ago!
I just wish the Bears were more forthcoming about all the injuries. Maybe they have confidence in their wideouts that we don’t know about. Other than Pringle having a quad injury and Brisker’s thumb what are the other guys problems? Maybe I’d feel better if I knew what was going on, maybe not. And HOW do you miss the whole season with a RIB injury? Unless it perforated his entire abdominal cavity, Never heard of that in my life.
For a second there, I thought I saw the band Riley Reid…
While the Bears will not say it, this is a ‘prove it’ year for everyone not drafted by Poles, including these FAs brought in, and the pickups he made on waivers. If they pan out great, but if an org is looking for diamonds in the rough, now is the year to do it, and not when they actually want to be competitive.