The Chicago Bears are navigating injuries ahead of the 2023 season but one former player is taking a journey toward a comeback from multiple setbacks.
Former Bears running back, Tarik Cohen, made the “big announcement” during his Twitch stream on August 22.
“I will be trying to come back to the NFL,” Cohen said. “I will be trying to get back on another roster. Gotta get back on another roster, man. I’ve been out for two years: ups, downs, middles. Highs, lows, all of that. Looking back, I feel like now, I needed those two years.”
Tarik Cohen Announces Comeback, Eliminates Bears
Tarik Cohen ‘Glad’ for 2-Year Absence
“When you in the midst of it, when you in the middle of it, you feel like you wanna keep playing. I still wanted to play; I got f***** hurt – twice. But, looking back on it, I’m glad. I’m glad that I had those two years off. Most people don’t get two years off and still have an opportunity. So you know what time it is. … Most people don’t get a two-year break.”
It was a quick decision for the former North Carolina A&T standout.
“This all happened yesterday. I woke up [and] in my mind, I’m like, I can do this s***. I feel like I can do this s***. The way my body feeling. I been running. I been cutting, doing backflips in the pool. Backflips on land. Running around. Back working out. I can do this s***.”
Cohen said he told his agent, noted powerbroker Drew Rosenhaus, to reach out to a team to set up a workout. And, when the team kept Cohen in a holding pattern, Rosenhaus put his thumb on the scale.
“You know Drew, big dog,” Cohen said. “You know what he do. … Adam Schefter, tweet this out real quick. … So Adam Schefter tweet that out, bunch of teams call in”. They want me to come work out for them to see if I still got it, man.”
Tarik Cohen Was Dynamic When Healthy
The Bears’ roster has undergone many changes over the last two years since general manager Ryan Poles took over. One of the changes that preceded even him was parting with Cohen who was dynamic out of the backfield when healthy.
Tru.
Tarik.
TD.#CHIvsLAR | #Bears100 pic.twitter.com/hUtAoqibx7— Chicago Bears (@ChicagoBears) November 18, 2019
A jitterbug who was more of a pass-catcher than a runner for the Bears, though still out of the backfield. His career took a dramatic turn when he suffered a leg injury that knocked him out after three games during the 2020 season. Poles’ sweeping changes that have taken place since then have only widened that divide.
Cohen finished his Bears career with 1,101 yards and five touchdowns on the ground and 1,575 yards with nine touchdowns.
He noted that former Bears head coach Matt Nagy – who is back with the Kansas City Chiefs as their offensive coordinator – and “all of my old coaches really hit me back up”. But he said the Bears have moved on, adding that that was a “hint” as to which team he initially wanted to go to.
It seems his ties to the Bears as an organization are completely severed, though.
Tarik Cohen: Bears ‘Hurt My Heart, Hurt My Feelings’
“Chicago don’t want me man,” Cohen said. “They let me go in my ‘ugly stage’. …Hurt my heart, hurt my feelings. I had just bought a house – just bought a f***** house, and I got cut. Snipered, I got sniped. I had just bought I house, and I got sniped. Imagine you just get full plates in [Call of Duty:] Warzone 1, and you get sniped in your head.”
Perhaps Cohen was looking to follow a similar route as former teammate David Montgomery who signed with the Detroit Lions in free agency.
Montgomery has noted that he is looking forward to playing the Bears most next season.