Bears tight end Jesper Horsted played only four offensive snaps against the Giants in his first NFL game last week. But he’s ready for more. He better be.
The rookie from Princeton, who spent the first 10 weeks of the season on the practice squad, suddenly is the Bears’ best pass-catching tight end. Ben Braunecker is not expected to play Thursday against the Lions after suffering a concussion against the Giants last week. Adam Shaheen still is out with a foot injury. And Trey Burton is on injured reserve.
“I think I’m ready for it,” Horsted said. “At this level, one thing all of [the others] have passed on to me is that you always prepare like you’re going to be the main guy in that game, because injuries happen in this league. So I’m not going to be prepare any differently, because I think I do that every week already.”
The Bears once had seven tight ends on their roster, including the practice squad, but are down to four healthy tight ends for the Lions game — Horsted, J.P. Holtz and Bradley Sowell on the active roster and rookie Dax Raymond on the practice squad.
The thin tight end situation typfies the Bears’ regression on offense that has marked the 2019 season. Horsted is a rookie who played his first game last week. Holtz is a blocker who was signed in Week 2 after being cut by the Redskins. Sowell is a converted offensive lineman who had been inactive for eight games before playing two offensive snaps last week against the Rams. And Raymond has never been active for a regular-season NFL game.
Combined, the Bears’ likely tight ends for the Lions game have played 14 games in the NFL (176 total snaps on offense), with three receptions for 27 yards and no touchdowns.
Coach Matt Nagy knows what he’s dealing with. The Bears have all but ignored the tight end in the passing game since Burton’s injury became problematic. In their last five games, Bears tight ends have six receptions for 55 yards and a touchdown — Braunecker’s 18-yard score against the Lions in a 20-13 victory Nov. 10 at Soldier Field. It’s not the game plan the Bears envisioned when they started the season.
“Yeah, it’s different. It’s totally different,” Nagy said. “We all kind of joked about it at the beginning of the season and the middle of the season how many tight ends we’ve had. It’s come to help us here a little bit to at least get through and see where some of these guys are at. It also gives a guy like Horsted a chance to show what he can do.”
The 6-4, 215-pound Horsted is eager for the opportunity after his first NFL game Sunday. He played four snaps on offense and caught a four-yard pass from Mitch Trubisky. Even that modest debut was a big moment for him.
“It was,” said Horsted, who grew up in suburban Minneapolis and was the St. Paul Pioneer-Press Minnesota Athlete of the Year in 2015. “I definitely took a second to realize what I’d done and that was definitely a childhood dream and goal — but it wasn’t just to make it into a game. I have a lot more that I hope to accomplish.”
Horsted’s first NFL game was typical for an undrafted rookie. “Before the game I’ve never dealt with nerves like that,” he said. “Once I got out there, everything was going really quickly … because I was trying to do everything 100 miles per hour. By the end of it, I realized, ‘It’s still football. Settle down a bit. And I was like, ‘OK. I can do this I can compete at this level.’ I think that’s going to be a lot better going into the second game.”
