The Bears on Thursday signed veteran tight end Demetrius Harris to a one-year contract.
Harris, 28, has appeared in 86 NFL games with 39 starts in six seasons with the Chiefs (2014-18) and Browns (2019), catching 72 passes for 754 yards and nine touchdowns.
The 6-7, 230-pounder entered the NFL with the Chiefs in 2013 as an undrafted free agent after playing basketball in college at Wisconsin-Milwaukee, a school that does not have a football team.
Harris spent his first four years in Kansas City working with Bears coach Matt Nagy, who served as Chiefs quarterbacks coach from 2013-15 and offensive coordinator in 2016-17.
After spending his rookie year on Kansas City's practice squad in 2013, Harris played in eight games in 2014 before a broken foot ended his season. He has since appeared in at least 15 games each of the last five years.
In 2016, Harris caught a 1-yard touchdown pass from nose tackle Dontari Poe in a Week 16 win over the Broncos. At 346 pounds, Poe became the heaviest player in NFL history to throw for a touchdown.
Harris signed with the Browns in 2019 and caught 15 passes for 149 yards and three touchdowns while playing in 15 games with six starts. He was released by Cleveland on Monday.
As a prep athlete, Harris was named All-State in both football and basketball at Jacksonville High School in Arkansas. He played basketball in college, first for two seasons at Mineral Area College in Park Hills, Mo., and then for two years at Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
Harris started 28 of 32 games as a senior, finishing ninth in the Horizon League with a 46.9 field-goal percentage and leading his team with 170 rebounds.
