In 2020 the NFL did not have a pre-season due to the Coronavirus. Pre-season games in the NFL are really not very exciting. The starters usually play a handful of plays. The excitement of these games would be to witness first hand how the rookie draft class looks. When your team takes out the top rookies drafted, you focus on the names you never have heard of. The un-drafted free agents, the long shots. Every season someone catches your eye. Every season, one guy just has a break out pre-season where you feel this guy has to make the team. The guy makes it all the way to the last cuts as he continues to tear it up against other teams’ second and third stringers. The long shot to make the roster, destined for the practice squad or out on the streets where he might ask “Do you want fries with that burger?” Watch for it when you visit a fast food restaurant. In 2017, it was Tanner Gentry where most fans thought he was the next coming of a Tommy Waddle for the Bears.

Tanner Gentry was an undrafted free agent the Bears brought in from the University of Wyoming in 2017. Home of the Cowboys. In 2016, Tanner Gentry made the All-Mountain West second team with a huge year at the wide receiver position. Gentry caught 72 passes for 1,326 yards with 14 touchdowns. Gentry was the first receiver to tally over 1000 yards for Wyoming since Jovon Bouknight caught 77 balls for 1,116 yards for the Cowboys in 2005. When Tanner Gentry arrived in Chicago, he was an All-star in the Pre-Season. The Bears just drafted Mitch Trubisky and were going to have him sit his first season behind veteran quarterback Mike Glennon. As we all know how that worked out. Tanner Gentry would be that guy you could stash on the practice squad and get his reps in every week and learn the NFL game. Tanner Gentry made his NFL living mostly on the practice squad. Same story for good ole number 87, Tommy Waddle who was cut from the team several times before he finally stuck on the roster. Tommy Waddle was a great receiver for the Bears to move the chains. He could take a huge hit over the middle and hold on to the football. Tanner Gentry would get in 4 games in the 2017 season. It was a year the Bears had a very poor core of wide receivers with bad quarterback play, as Mitch Trubisky was thrown to the Wolves with Mike Glennon’s horrific play. Plus, you could say the Bears Offensive line was not very good as well. It was the John Fox ERA, and defense was the Bears jam while running the football on offense.

In 2018, Tanner Gentry was forgotten because it was a new ERA in Chicago as John Fox was fired. Matt Nagy was brought in to be the head coach of the Bears. The Bears spent money and did a total upgrade on their offense with new receivers along with tight ends. A guy who is a project like Tanner Gentry, had to move on. Find another job and hope a team would give him a shot in the NFL. Gentry finished his Bears career with 3 catches for only 35 yards. Tanner Gentry resurfaced while moving on and made the New York Guardians roster of the XFL in 2020. Gentry would not find the field as the league shut down due to the Corona Virus. Sometimes you can’t go back home. However the 26 year old receiver circled the wagons and found his old quarterback from Wyoming which might be the home cooking needed for a Tanner Gentry. Gentry finds his way to Buffalo and reuniting with his former friend, his college quarterback Josh Allen. Josh Allen was the guy that helped put Tanner Gentry on the map with that great year they had in 2016 while at Wyoming, hooking up 14 times in the end zone. Tanner Gentry finds himself in the same familiar position of the practice squad so far in Buffalo. This go around with an MVP caliber signal caller that Josh Allen is having this season, might be the recipe to keep Tanner Gentry dream alive as a receiver in the the NFL. Plus Gentry and Allen had a nice chemistry years ago back in Wyoming as Buffalo fans hope to see that happen again. The words of former Panther and Bear Muhsin Muhammad, when he said “receivers go to die in Chicago.” Maybe Tanner Gentry will be his typical long shot self once again and now rise from the Chicago Receiver graveyard and do well with his ole Chum and the Buffalo Bills.