Master Teague will get his chance to prove he can play in the NFL.
While the former Ohio State running back was not one of the 262 players selected in the 2022 NFL draft, he has landed with an NFL team as he agreed to an undrafted free agent with the Chicago Bears on Saturday night.
Man!! Thanks to the Lord above! Appreciate all those that have gotten me to this point in my career! Grateful to be a @ChicagoBears!! Stomach is growling, I will not be denied! pic.twitter.com/EsRY2MKdkT
— aster W. Teague III (@MasterTeagueIII) April 30, 2022
Teague is now in the league after a four-year career at Ohio State in which he ran for 1,764 yards and 17 touchdowns on 323 carries and caught 11 passes for 118 yards. He ran for 789 yards and four touchdowns on 135 carries in 2019 and was Ohio State’s starting running back for most of the 2020 season, when he ran for 514 yards and eight touchdowns on 104 carries, but he fell to third on the Buckeyes’ running back depth chart in 2021, when he ran for 355 yards and four touchdowns on only 67 carries.
Despite his quiet final season at Ohio State, Teague opted to bet himself and take his best shot at playing professionally now rather than entering the transfer portal or staying at OSU to potentially remain buried on the depth chart.
“With the situation at hand, I felt that I was ready to move forward,” Teague said. “I felt confident in myself, I felt I was being led to do that. Coming back, I guess that was an option, but with the situation at hand, I wasn’t sure what it would be looking like because of this last year, how things went down.”
As an undrafted free agent, Teague will have to compete just to earn a roster spot, but his physical gifts will give him a chance. At Ohio State’s pro day, Teague ran a 4.44-second 40-yard dash and posted numbers in the bench press (27 reps of 225 pounds) and broad jump (10-foot-11) that would have topped all running backs at the NFL Scouting Combine, all with plenty of size at 5-foot-11 and 221 pounds.
He joins Justin Fields, who he lined up alongside in Ohio State’s backfield in 2019 and 2020, on the Bears’ roster.
