After the Chicago Bears shipped DJ Moore to the Buffalo Bills, it was clear they were going to need some sort of addition to the wide receiver room. Yes, Luther Burden and Rome Odunze would handle the top two spots, but it was going to be tough to imagine that Jahdae Walker would step in as the WR3 role with very few gameday snaps with the offense.
If you look at how Ben Johnson handled Burden, he used Olamide Zaccheaus as the team’s WR3 for much of the first half of the season and limited Burden’s
snaps. It was clear Burden was the more talented player, but there’s more to catching the ball in Ben Johnson’s offense as a wide receiver. The coaching staff trusted OZ to make the right blocks in the run game, run the right routes in the passing game, and generally play the role of WR3 exactly how Ben Johnson wants it. Johnson wasn’t ready to trust a rookie to handle all the responsibilities out of the gate, and it was going to be pretty surprising if he put that role in the hands of a second-year UDFA with just 86 offensive snaps.
When Olamide Zacchaus signed with the Atlanta Falcons, I was surprised that the Bears didn’t decide to re-sign him, but when Kalif Raymond was reported, it suddenly made so much sense.
Raymond is a fabulous move by Ben Johnson and Ryan Poles. He fits everything that OZ was, but he’s a more talented player. He blocks, he does the right things, he’s a great teammate, and he also can handle return duties, which means they can collapse the role of OZ and Devin Duvernay into Raymond, but utilize him more as a receiving target.
Raymond is going to be 32 years old this summer, so he certainly could fall off at any moment, but he was a UDFA who worked his way up and became a solid piece of the Detroit Lions’ passing attack over the last few years. His production definitely dropped last year in Detroit with Ben Johnson’s departure.
Raymond is the perfect guy for the Bears’ WR3 role. He can step in early, and if Walker is ready to take over the role later in the year, Walker can take snaps away from Raymond and have a bigger role in the offense.
The only thing I don’t like about this is that it’s only a one-year deal. Raymond signed a one-year deal worth a little over $3 million. I would have loved to see a 2-year deal with the 2nd year non-guaranteed. That would have been perfect.
