Following their heartbreaking overtime loss to the Los Angeles Rams in the divisional round, the Chicago Bears immediately signed several players to reserve/future deals. If you aren’t familiar with a futures deal, it essentially allows those selected players to join the 90-man roster in hopes of competing for a job in offseason workouts and training camp.
Wide receiver Maurice Alexander and running back Brittain Brown were among the 14 players inked to a futures deal. However, one player who was not among that group was tight end Thomas Gordon.
Gordon joined the Bears at the start of August and was cut at the end of the preseason. The former Northwestern tight end found his way back to Chicago, signing to the team's practice squad on Dec. 23. He spent the rest of the regular season and postseason on the Bears’ taxi roster, but they didn’t extend him a futures deal.
With Gordon becoming a free agent earlier this week, it allowed the Detroit Lions to swoop in and sign him to a futures deal on Thursday, per Aaron Wilson of KPRC-2.
Ex-Bears TE Thomas Gordon Joins Lions on Futures Deal
The Lions, who named Drew Petzing their new offensive coordinator, will likely be in the market for multiple tight end prospects. Petzing did a good job of creating opportunities for Trey McBride during his time with the Arizona Cardinals.
Sam LaPorta and Brock Wright are coming off serious injuries, while Shane Zylstra is scheduled to become an unrestricted free agent. The Lions also have Anthony Firsker and gave a futures deal to Zach Horton.
That said, Detroit will never turn down the opportunity to take away a player from Ben Johnson. Meanwhile, the Bears didn’t need to keep Gordon around, as they already had three tight ends on future deals.
And not to mention, Chicago has one of the better tight end duos in Cole Kmet and Colston Loveland.
Gordon didn’t do much with the Bears in the preseason, which likely didn’t help his case to make the practice squad initially at the end of August. Nevertheless, he’ll try to make his case once again with the Bears’ rival in Detroit.
The now ex-Bears pass catcher has a tough path to making the 53-man roster in Detroit, but they’re giving him a shot to prove everyone wrong. We will see if the Bears will regret not giving him a futures deal, or if they’ll look correct in the end.