Ted Ginn Jr. Won’t Return After Bears Punt Little-Used WR

According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, the Bears have released veteran wide receiver Ted Ginn Jr. The move comes as no surprise since the 35-year-old had become an increasingly inconsequential part of the offense and was not making any sort of meaningful contribution to special teams.

Another post-trade-deadline move: Bears have released veteran WR Ted Ginn, per source.

— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) November 4, 2020

After being in on 43% of the Bears’ offensive snaps and seeing just one target in Week 1 at Detroit, Ginn’s role decreased rapidly. He hadn’t been in on more than 6% of the snaps in four weeks, during which time he received zero total targets. Some of that initially could have been chalked up to his move to punt returner following Tarik Cohen’s season-ending ACL tear, an ill-fated experiment at best.

Ginn was more content to run away from the ball than to run with it and he tallied only five punt returns for 24 total yards. His fate was sealed when the Bears activated Dwayne Harris, who was immediately moved into a special teams role and fielded three punts for 17 yards last Sunday against the Saints.

Even though he was a little long in the tooth, the thought coming into the season was that Ginn would provide the Bears with a play-maker who could make things happen in space. Due to a variety of reasons that apply to several different parties, including Ginn himself, that just never happened.

Thus, he will not return after the Bears punted him.