Adam Shaheen Tells His Pre-draft Story and It Sounds Awful

The Chicago Bears selected tight end Adam Shaheen out of Ashland college in 2017. To date he has been the most disappointing of the draft picks to come out of that 2017 class. Mitch Trubisky? Eddie Jackson? Tarik Cohen? All went to the Pro Bowl. Jordan Morgan is no longer on the team but he was a 5th round pick. Shaheen went in the 2nd round.

To date he has 17 catches for 175 and four touchdowns in 19 career games. He has missed 13 games with an assortment of injury problems, leading to speculation whether his body can handle the physical nature of the NFL despite its impressive size. Suffice to say he hasn't lived up to his "Baby Gronk" nickname to this point.

Is it possible that Shaheen has struggled to adapt to the NFL level because he wasn't prepared for the work it would take? This is a problem that befalls many young players who come out of smaller, Division II schools. Shaheen explained what that was like before the 2017 draft to Zac Jackson of The Athletic. It doesn't sound like fun.

“There was a lot of pressure just because I know most of the guys had come to see me,” Shaheen said. “It’s a big part of the process, and there’s a lot of buildup to the pro day. It’s not the most important thing you’re ever going to do, but in my situation, I wasn’t going to downplay it. I had to perform."

“Probably what I remember most is the coaches just being up all in my face. They grabbed me. They tried to get me to jump offsides. I think they knew what kind of athlete I was but they were testing me mentally. Frank Smith ended up being my tight ends coach my first year with the Bears. I think he spent an hour that day with his hands on me, so we already had kind of a relationship before I ever got there.”

Adam Shaheen has not developed the alpha mentality needed in NFL

Like with many players of his type, the problem Shaheen suffers from isn't athletic talent. He has more than enough to be a success in the pros. It is a sort of inferiority complex. He doesn't play with that alpha male style that make the likes of Rob Gronkowski and Travis Kelce so dominant. They're not only good, but they have the self-confidence to know it too.

There are examples of it in how he's played. A perfect example was seeing him get tackled so easily by Cre'Von LeBlanc in the playoff loss to Philadelphia. Remember that Shaheen is 6'6, 270 lbs. LeBlanc is 5'11 and 190. The tight end should've tramped him like an elephant over a rat. Instead he went to the ground, coming up a yard short of a crucial first down.

There is no doubt that 2019 will be the defining year for Shaheen. Sink or swim time. If he can start to showcase some of that talent the Bears saw in him, they'll begin searching for somebody who can do the job. The pre-draft stuff may not have been easy to handle, but it's also the reality of the NFL. If you can't handle the pressure, you won't survive.