Stars who suited up for the Bears past their prime

Yahoo

5 hours ago

When I was bumbling around on Twitter/X the other day, I came across this one tweet that caught my eye.
Celtics Shaq. That one Kevin Garnett Brooklyn Nets edit to 'Outstanding' by The Gap Band. However you want to refer to it, it's a term that refers to a big-name athlete playing for a new team past their prime.
I was thinking about responding to this tweet, but I couldn't decide on just one person to pick for the Bears. When you're the oldest team in the NFL, you're going to have your fair share of big names on the roster, even if those big names weren't all in their prime when they played for Chicago.
As a fun trip down memory lane before the new season, here are a few former Chicago Bears players in the 21st century with tremendous peaks who suited up for the team past their prime.
DE Jared Allen
When the Bears signed Jared Allen to a four-year deal in 2014, expectations were very high. He was just coming off of an 11.5-sack season in Minnesota, and he had reached a double-digit sack total in seven consecutive seasons to that point. Considering how bad Chicago's defense was in 2013, Allen was meant to serve as a major upgrade for their pass rush.
Unfortunately, things didn't play out the way either side had hoped. Allen dealt with a bout of pneumonia early in the season that saw him lose 18 pounds. That surely put a damper on his level of play, and he finished the year with 5.5 sacks. That had been the lowest total of his career to that point.
Once the Bears changed from a 4-3 base defense to a 3-4 in 2015, the writing was on the wall. Allen played three games in 2015 and got traded to Carolina soon after. He joked about his stint in Chicago during his Hall of Fame induction speech recently, so there are clearly no hard feelings. Given how tremendous his career was and given his recent enshrinement into Canton, I like to think that things ended up okay for him in the end.
WR Santonio Holmes
Perhaps best known as the Steelers' savior in their Super Bowl XLIII victory, Santonio Holmes made quite the name for himself for his stellar play in Pittsburgh. After spending four years there and another four years with the Jets, Holmes signed a one-year contract with the Bears in 2014.
At that time, they had a dominant wide receiver duo in Alshon Jeffery and Brandon Marshall but lacked a formidable third wide receiver. The hope was that Holmes could provide that stability, even if his numbers weren't as strong at that stage as they were in his prime. He ended up starting early in the season but slowly saw his role cut down, playing in just nine games before he was released. He ended the year with just eight receptions for 67 yards.
WR Victor Cruz
Victor Cruz was one of the best feel-good stories in the NFL in the early 2010s. An undrafted free agent out of UMass, Cruz signed with the Giants in 2010 and became an All-Pro wide receiver in just his second year in the league. He finished 2011 with 82 catches for 1,536 yards and nine touchdowns, and he followed that up with a combined 2,090 receiving yards the following two seasons.
However, a torn patellar tendon in 2014 ended Cruz's season six games into the year, and an aggravation of that injury leading up to 2015 saw him miss the entirety of that year, too. He would return to the Giants' starting lineup in 2016, but by that point, the injury had slowed him down. He signed with the Bears in 2017, being expected to compete for a roster spot on a team that was thin at the wide receiver position. In the end, Cruz wouldn't end up making it through the preseason. Fun fact: I saw Cruz perform his signature salsa dance celebration when he scored a touchdown at Family Fest in 2017. That was cool to witness in a Bears uniform.
RB Lamar Miller
Throughout the 2010s, Lamar Miller was one of the more consistent backs in the NFL. He surpassed 850 rushing yards every year from 2014 to 2018, surpassing the 1,000-yard mark twice in that span. Between stints in Miami and Houston, he was a starting NFL back for much of the decade. That changed after a torn ACL in the preseason ended his 2019 season.
Miller was 29 years old in 2020, which is young for any normal person but may as well be 105 for a running back. Coming off the injury, he signed with the Patriots but didn't make the 53-man roster. The Bears signed him to their practice squad soon after, activating him in Week 10 when David Montgomery got hurt. Miller caught two passes for six yards in his lone game as a Bear. He reverted back to the practice squad after that week, and Washington signed him to their 53-man roster off Chicago's practice squad a few weeks later.
OT Orlando Pace
Orlando Pace will go down as one of the most prolific offensive linemen from his era. A seven-time Pro Bowler and a starter of 154 games in 12 seasons with the St. Louis Rams, Pace was the blindside protector for the Greatest Show on Turf. By 2009, his status as a future Hall of Famer was already set in stone for his working protecting Kurt Warner and Marc Bulger. However, he signed a three-year deal with the Bears to give new quarterback Jay Cutler an experience offensive lineman up front.
Pace started off the 2009 season as Chicago's starting left tackle, a role he held for 11 games before getting hurt. He turned 34 years old that season, and his age had been showing throughout the season. Granted, season-ending injuries in 2006 and 2007 with the Rams played a role in accelerating that timeline. When Pace returned from injury, Chris Williams took his spot in Chicago's starting lineup. Honorable mention for this goes to Jason Peters, who started in 15 games for the Bears in 2021 and performed admirably well for a 39-year-old lineman.
S Antrell Rolle
In 2015, the Bears hired Ryan Pace as their new general manager. One of his big projects was the rebuilding of a lackluster defense. Some additions like Eddie Goldman and Adrian Amos helped significantly. Others like Pernell McPhee showed mixed results. Then, there was Antrel Rolle, who was initially expected to play a major role in Chicago's secondary.
Rolle was a three-time Pro Bowler and a two-time All-Pro known for his tremendous ball skills. Just two years before, he was an All-Pro safety with six interceptions for the Giants in 2013. However, Rolle dealt with a sprained ankle that forced him to miss a few games in 2015 before returning and suffered a season-ending MCL sprain just two games later.
QB Kordell Stewart
Before Ben Roethlisberger, there was Kordell Stewart. The latter served as Pittsburgh's starting quarterback from 1997 to 2001, starting a handful of games in 2002, as well. He went 46-29 as the Steelers' starter, making the Pro Bowl in 2001. He was an elite athlete at the quarterback position who was arguably ahead of his time, seeing as though mobility is now a bigger priority for quarterbacks these days.
Stewart fell back down to Earth in 2002 and got benched in favor of Tommy Maddox. The Bears signed Stewart in 2003 and kicked off the year with him as their starting quarterback. He was eventually benched twice: once for Chris Chandler early in the year, and once for Rex Grossman later down the stretch. Stewart went 2-5 as Chicago's starter, finishing with just a 50.2% completion percentage and only seven passing touchdowns to 12 interceptions.
The kickers
Before Robbie Gould and during that period between him and Cairo Santos, the Bears had plenty of instability at the kicker position in the 21st century. Here are just a few kickers Chicago had suit up for them past their prime:
Jay Feely: At 38 years old, Feely signed with the Bears in 2014 when Gould injured his quad. Feely played in four games, going 3-for-4 on field goal attempts and 5-for-6 on extra points. He had been a 14-year veteran at that point, and considering how bad the 2014 season was for Chicago, I wouldn't blame fans for blocking that year out entirely.
Doug Brien: Brien was a 12-year veteran and a Super Bowl champion kicker in 2005, having been signed by the Bears to be their replacement for Paul Edinger. He played in three games that year, going a brutal 1-for-4 on field goal attempts. He suffered an injury in Week 3, upon which Chicago signed Gould in free agency. The rest is history.
Mike Nugent: The Bears went through three kickers in 2017. Connor Barth kicked off the year as the starter, but he got cut after a 68.8% field goal percentage that year, including a missed would-be game-winner the day before his release. Chicago brought in Cairo Santos, but he got hurt. Soon after, Nugent was the kicker they ended up with. He was a 13-year veteran at that point and played in just four games for the Bears, going 4-for-4 on field goals and 7-for-9 on PATs.
Olindo Mare: Gould suffered another injury in 2012, straining his left calf and missing the final three games of the year. He was replaced by Mare, who was 39 at the time and had been an NFL starting kicker since 1997. Mare went 6-for-8 on field goal tries and made all seven on his PAT attempts. He beat out Billy Cundiff and Neil Rackers for the opportunity, both of whom being tremendous choices for this list if either of them won the tryout competition.