Wide receiver Alshon Jeffery will sign a one-year deal to play for the Eagles next year.
The NFL’s league season opened at 3 p.m., making Jeffery officially a free agent. The Bears gave him the franchise tag last season but didn’t have the stomach to pay more than $17 million to do so again. Playing in a prove-it year, Jeffery was suspended for four games last season for violating the league’s performance-enhancing drug rule.
He caught 52 balls for 821 yards last season, his fifth since then-Bears GM Phil Emery plucked him from South Carolina in the second round. He, amazingly, was the last remaining member of the Bears’ 2012 draft class.
Jeffery is ostensibly betting on himself for what will be his third-straight prove-it season.
Jeffery’s departure leaves the Bears, and presumptive new quarterback Mike Glennon, with unproven receivers, namely Kevin White and Cam Meredith. White has played four games in two years since he was drafted in the first round.
The deal is for $14 million, per ESPN, and reunites Jeffery with former Bears receivers coach Mike Groh.
“I’d love to win the championship in the city of Chicago,” Jeffery told ESPN earlier this week. “But it’s all a business, so we’ll see how it turns out.”
He later that he’d want to find a quarterback “who’s going to be there for a while.”
The Bears thanked Jeffery on their Twitter page.
