Possessing one of the best senses of humor in the locker room, Bears tight end John Gilmore couldn’t resist egging on fellow tight end Desmond Clark.
“I’m not even going to go Sunday, you going?” Gilmore asked Clark on Thursday in front of a crowd of reporters.
“Nope, I’m thinking about staying home,” Clark answered. “Why even show up? He already shut me down.”
Rookie Greg Olsen, a quick learner, followed the veterans’ lead.
“We don’t even have any pass plays to the tight end this week,” Olsen said. “Dez hit the nail on the head.”
Sarcasm dripped off every word out of the tight ends’ mouths.
The new celebrities of the Bears’ offense were responding playfully to Vikings safety Darren Sharper’s comments Wednesday when Sharper claimed he should be “fired” if a tight end ever caught a pass on him.
“He has been in the league 10 years, I’ll go out on a limb and say a tight end has caught a ball on him one time,” Olsen said. “I’m not worried about what he thinks, to be honest.”
If the tight ends get even Sunday at Soldier Field, the Bears likely will get to .500 on the season. On an offense lacking playmakers, Clark and Olsen have evolved into the Bears’ most reliable threats.
The Green Bay game marked the first time two Bears tight ends each had more than 50 receiving yards since Emery Moorehead and Pat Dunsmore did so against the Lions on Oct. 16, 1983.
Years of neglect of the tight end created the type of perception in Chicago that Sharper alluded to when dissing the position as a threat. But the reality has changed this year at Halas Hall thanks to Olsen and the underrated Clark.
Clark wanted to brush off Sharper’s show of disrespect as easily as Olsen did, but deep down it bugged him. He mocked Sharper in front of the cameras, calling him “the Brett Favre of safeties” and “apparently a first-ballot Hall of Famer.”
“I guess he doesn’t have to worry about job security because he’s a shut-down safety,” Clark said.
But earlier discussing Sharper’s comments, a more serious and perturbed Clark paused several seconds to collect his thoughts so he didn’t escalate the war of words. A tight end with the highest yards-per-catch average (13.4) in the NFL at his position since the start of the 2006 season expected more respect from a veteran.
“That’s just arrogance, simply arrogance,” Clark said of Sharper, shaking his head. “If they say they don’t game plan for the tight end, then don’t. I had some pretty good days against Minnesota and [Sharper]. I hope they don’t game plan against [the tight end] again so I can go out and have another big day.”
Credit Clark for doing his research. Sharper was in the Vikings’ secondary Oct. 16, 2005, at Soldier Field when Clark caught two touchdowns in a 28-3 Bears victory. In 10 career games against Sharper when the safety was with the Packers and the Vikings, Clark has 22 catches for 230 yards and two touchdowns. This season, Clark is the Bears’ second-leading receiver with 19 catches for 231 yards and two touchdowns.
Maybe Sharper would have been better served taunting quarterback Brian Griese given his personal history against him. The last time Sharper faced Griese was Sept. 11, 2005, when he returned an interception 88 yards against the Buccaneers for the Vikings’ first touchdown of the season.
It might be no coincidence that Clark has caught 10 passes for two touchdowns in the last two weeks against NFC North opponents Detroit and Green Bay that play the same Cover-2 defense the Vikings use.
As the Bears know too well, as good as that scheme can be it becomes vulnerable to quick tight ends able to run patterns down the middle of the field. The rapport Clark and Griese have can’t hurt either: Clark caught nine touchdowns as a Bronco in 2000-01 when Griese was Denver’s quarterback.
“It’s by design,” Clark said of the recent tight end success. “When you make stuff like that work, you keep going back to it.”
The expansion of Olsen’s role in the offense makes that a no-brainer. To Clark’s credit, he embraced the Bears’ first-round draft pick from Day One and never felt threatened despite the hype surrounding Olsen. Nobody in the locker room realizes how valuable Olsen can be more than Clark, and the two complement one another better than any of the Bears’ wide-receiver tandems.
While Clark caught the game-winning touchdown pass against the Packers, Olsen’s 19-yard touchdown catch over Green Bay safety Atari Bigby provided the perfect example of how the Bears planned to take advantage of his rare combination of size, speed and hands.
So impressed was Griese that he compared Olsen earlier this week to Hall of Fame-caliber tight end Shannon Sharpe, a former teammate in Denver.
“Thankfully, Greg is not much of a talker as Shannon was,” Griese said. “Shannon was never covered, always open, and always let you know that. Greg has some unique abilities [too]. He can run and get down the field in a matchup against a linebacker or safety.”
Olsen might have to race Clark for the chance to match up Sunday against Sharper.
“We have got two tight ends who are pretty good,” Griese said.
That’s still just a rumor in Minnesota.
Tough tandem
Don’t laugh, Bears fans. Your team is finally throwing to the tight end as effectively as any in the league. Only three NFC teams have two tight ends who have caught TD passes this season. The Bears are one of them.
%% TD TEAM TIGHT ENDS TD
5 Cowboys Jason Witten 4 Tony Curtis 1
3 Bears Desmond Clark 2
Greg Olsen 1
3 Packers Bubba Franks 2
Donald Lee 1 %%
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dhaugh@tribune.com
