The Bears have signed veteran tight end Marcedes Lewis to add depth — and an effective blocker — behind Cole Kmet and Gerald Everett.
Lewis, 40, will be playing in his 19th NFL season. He signed with the Bears last year after five seasons with the Packers and 12 with the Jaguars. He had four receptions (on five targets) for 29 yards and a touchdown in 332 snaps (19.5 snaps per game), but was most effective as a blocking tight end. The Bears were second in the NFL in rushing last year with 141.1 yards per game.
He played all 17 games last season and had his typical youthful enthusiasm when asked after last season about playing in 2024 at 40.
“I’m rolling. I’m rolling,” Lewis said on locker clean-out day in January. “It’s always been mentally for me, and my mental fortitude is something that I lean on and I can hang my hat on. The stuff that I put on film this year is stuff that I can be proud of, and it’s crazy because I’ll be 40 in May, but when you watch the film, it doesn’t look like it. … I’ll be ready to go [in 2024] when my number is called.”
Lewis, a first-round draft pick by the Jaguars in 2006 (28th overall), has long been valued as a mentor and good teammate — including last season with the Bears.
Bears general manager Ryan Poles had a special appreciation for the role Lewis played on the Bears’ 7-10 team last season.
“I do want to single out Marcedes Lewis. That’s a special human being,” Poles said at his end-of-season press conference in January. “And I know he’s played a lot in this league, but was a really key addition to our staff, our team and locker room — the leadership through some of the hard times, the things he said to pull guys together was outstanding, and I’m really, really thankful for him.”
Lewis has 436 career receptions for 5,113 yards and 40 touchdowns in 268 NFL games. His best season was 2010 with the Jaguars, when he had 58 receptions for 700 yards (12.1 yards per catch) and 10 touchdowns and made the Pro Bowl.