Devin Aromashodu is so focused on ongoing negotiations on a new collective bargaining agreement between players and owners in Washington D.C. that he was unable to confirm or deny a report claiming the Bears will not tender a contract to the receiver for next season, making it unlikely that he will remain with the team.
Not that this is a surprise. Aromashodu’s spiral from star in the making to out of the picture has well documented.
“I’m just trying to wait and see what happens with the CBA,” Aromashodu said from his hometown of Miami. “I honestly wasn’t even thinking about it but was just worrying about whether we were going to have a season next year. They can do whatever they like and it won’t matter if we don’t have a season next year.”
I was convinced Aromashodu was going to have a breakout season after he caught 22 passes for 282 yards and four touchdowns in the final four games of the 2009 season. He was targeted by quarterback Jay Cutler 10 times while catching five passes for 71 yards in the 2010 season opener against the Lions. It was during that game that his career with the Bears took a hairpin turn.
Aromashodu short-armed some balls in that game after absorbing big blows. He dropped some others and was essentially benched. He only caught five more passes the rest of the season.
The Bears have already signed Canadian Football League standout Andy Fantuz, who at 6-foot-4, 221 pounds, could fill the team’s need for a physical receiver.