Bears claim consideration of RB Kareem Hunt ‘never got serious’

INDIANAPOLIS — The Bears claimed Wednesday that they never seriously considered signing Kareem Hunt, the former Chiefs running back whom the Browns inked earlier this month. Hunt became a free agent after the Chiefs cut him in November once a video surfaced of him assaulting a woman in a hotel.

Just last month, both Bears head coach Matt Nagy and general manager Ryan Pace openly admitted considering Hunt. Nagy, who coached Hunt in 2017, said then that he called Hunt to check on his well-being.

At the NFL Scouting Combine on Wednesday, though, they claimed that they weren’t close to signing him.

“I think with Kareem — did we talk about it? Yes. Was it serious? No,” Pace said. “And I think every scenario that comes up, we’d do our team a disservice if we didn’t discuss every scenario. We talked about it but it never got serious.”

Nagy phrased the Bears’ interest similarly.

As far as Kareem goes, everybody knows I talked to him and had that discussion with him the first time,” Nagy said. “He understands that. I’m happy for him, and the situation, but we can’t — that’s where he’s at now and that’s in the past. For us, we did discuss it, it was something that we discussed, but it never became serious for us. That’s about as honest and real as we can get, and, again, it’s pretty simple.”

The NFL is likely to suspend Hunt before he plays his first down for the Browns.