Dante Pettis missed last season due to injury. Since the wideout last played, the Bears have changed offensive coordinators and are likely to change quarterbacks. But the veteran pass catcher will have another chance.
The Bears are re-signing Pettis to a one-year deal, ESPN.com’s Courtney Cronin tweets. The former 49ers second-round pick played an auxiliary role for the 2022 Bears. He will join a receiving corps that now includes Keenan Allen, whom the team acquired late Thursday night.
Pettis re-signed in 2023 but opened training camp on the Bears’ non-football injury list; he was not activated until August. Chicago then shuttled the veteran backup, who had served as a part-time starter for a receiver-thin 2022 Bears edition, to IR. That ended Pettis’ season. Even with Luke Getsy gone, the team will give Pettis another shot.
Pettis did not stick in San Francisco, and he did not exceed 110 receiving yards in a season from 2019-21. The Bears took a flier on him during a 2022 offseason in which they added a few receivers — Byron Pringle, Equanimeous St. Brown, N’Keal Harry among the others — on low-cost short-term deals. Pettis caught 19 passes for 245 yards and three touchdowns that season.
The Bears now have Allen and D.J. Moore atop their receiver depth chart, and another addition early in the draft could be in play for a team that will be ready to supply Caleb Williams with weapons. The team added Gerald Everett to pair with Cole Kmet this week, while acquiring pass-catching back D’Andre Swift. At wide receiver, the likes of Tyler Scott and Velus Jones reside as Chicago’s tertiary options presently.
Moooves
He was pretty darn reliable in ‘22. He could be a nice addition to their new receiver corps- at way less money than Mooney got.
At this stage of his career it better be for punt returns and a 4th WR.
As long as somebody, ANYBODY, pushes Velus Jones off the roster…