Selecting the 2022 All Ex-Bears Team

In tribute to our New York Jets sister site Gang Green Nation, I decided to take a look at some of the former Chicago Bears and put together an All Ex-Bears team based off of how they performed for other teams in 2022.

Doing research really opened my eyes to how many of the recent former Bears are out of the league. Of their 22 listed starters on Pro Football Reference from the 2018 season, 7 of them are out of the league, while Jordan Howard and Kyle Fuller played in just one game for their respective teams in 2022. Such is life in the NFL, but it’s always nice to go down memory lane and check back on some old friends.

Here are my selections for the 2022 All Ex-Bears team.

QB: Andy Dalton

Dalton put together a decent if unspectacular season for the Saints as their primary starting quarterback, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Especially for an older journeyman, leading his team to a 6-8 record as starter with 2,871 yards, 18 touchdowns and 9 touchdowns with a 66.7 completion percentage is a respectable statline.

RB: Raheem Mostert

He barely did anything in Chicago, but Mostert has developed into a solid starting running back over the years. He had a career-best 891 rushing yards and 3 touchdowns with 4.9 yards per carry as the Dolphins’ primary running back last year.

WR: DeAndre Carter, Marquise Goodwin, Allen Robinson

If you were given this list of receivers two years ago, would you guess that Robinson would be the one to put together the fewest amount of receiving yards of the bunch? Carter had a surprising career-best year at 29 with 46 catches and 538 yards for the Chargers in 2022, and Goodwin caught 27 passes and 387 yards for 4 touchdowns in Seattle. ARob only played in 10 games for the Rams, finishing with 33 receptions, 339 yards and 3 touchdowns.

TE: MyCole Pruitt

Most of the former Bears tight ends from recent teams are out of the league, so Pruitt was the best of the bunch. He caught 16 passes for 150 yards and 4 touchdowns, giving him impressive scoring production with a limited pass-catching volume.

OL: Charles Leno Jr., James Daniels, Alex Bars, Cornelius Lucas, Jason Peters

Leno hasn’t missed a game for the Commanders in his two seasons there, ending with PFF grades of 81.2 and 71.6 in those seasons, respectively. Daniels tied for the 13th-lowest blown block rate among offensive guards in the NFL in his first year with the Steelers. Bars struggled in Las Vegas, but he did start 14 games for them. Lucas has taken on a solid role along Washington’s offensive line and started a career-high 12 games this year and allowed just 4 sacks. Peters continues tremendous production for an offensive lineman over 40 — an admittedly limited sample size — allowing just one sack with no penalties in 10 games and one start.

DL: Roy Robertson-Harris, Bilal Nichols, Khyiris Tonga

Robertson-Harris and Nichols both had 17 games started for the Jaguars and Raiders, respectively. RRH earned a three-year, $30 million contract extension this offseason, while Nichols had 44 tackles and 1.5 sacks for Las Vegas. Tonga performed as a solid backup defensive tackle for the Vikings after getting cut by the Bears, finishing with 28 tackles and 4 broken up passes at the line of scrimmage.

EDGE: Khalil Mack, Leonard Floyd

Mack earned his seventh Pro Bowl nomination in his first season with the Chargers, tallying 8 sacks, 12 tackles for a loss and two fumble recoveries in his age-31 campaign. Floyd continued his impressive sack production in his third — and final — year on the other Los Angeles squad with the Rams. He had 9 sacks in 2022 and heads to Buffalo with 29 sacks in his time with L.A.

LB: Roquan Smith, Jon Bostic

Roquan played half of 2022 with the Bears, but I’ll include him on this list, partially because I couldn’t think of anyone else to have on this roster. He concluded last year in a strong way with the Ravens as a Pro Bowler and a first-team All-Pro with 169 tackles, 3 interceptions and 4.5 sacks. Not only was I surprised to see Bostic still in the league, but he started 5 games for the Commanders and finished with 25 total tackles. That’s respectable!

CB: Bryce Callahan, Duke Shelley

After a few run-ins with injury in his time after Chicago, Callahan bounced back with 3 interceptions, 6 pass deflections, a pick-six and an allowed passer rating of just 80.0 as a solid starting cornerback for the Chargers. Shelley had his career-best season in 2022 after moving onto the Vikings, intercepting a pass with 8 pass deflections with a 45.7% completion rate allowed and a 55.2 passer rating allowed.

S: Adrian Amos, Deon Bush

Amos ended his tenure with the Packers fairly well, finishing with 102 tackles, an interception and 5 pass deflections and a sack as their full-time starting strong safety. The remaining safety choices are limited, but Bush played in 16 games, serving as a special teamer and backup with 11 tackles and a pass break-up for the Chiefs.