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What Bears Fans Should Know About the Signing of Marlen Sewell
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- What Bears Fans Should Know About the Signing of Marlen Sewell
Following the Coby Bryant injury , the Chicago Bears made a roster move by signing Marlen Sewell on August 4th .
As Brad Biggs writes on X , "#Bears morning roster move of adding S Marlen Sewell after placing DE Jonathan Garvin on IR is signal the replace Coby Bryant plan isn't coming from the outside.
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Sewell is an undrafted rookie from Vanderbilt . Spent some time this spring on #Chiefs roster."
While Sewell isn't some blockbuster signing, it's still worth looking into what he can provide to the Bears roster.
Marlen Sewell College Career Recap
Sewell played all five years of his college career at Vanderbilt, as he's now 24 years old. Per the Bears official website, Sewell comes in at 6'0", 199 lbs .
Looking at Sewell's college production , he got his first real shot at playing time as a true junior, playing in 12 games after playing in fewer than five as both a freshman and sophomore.
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During Sewell's junior season, which was in 2023, he had 25 tackles and one tackle for loss. 2024 was a bit of a disappointment for Sewell production-wise, as he only had 20 tackles in 13 games.
During Sewell's final year in college, which was in 2025, he took a huge leap to 52 tackles, and he also had 1.5 tackles for loss. Both of those numbers were the best of his career.
The one key problem you'll notice is that interceptions were never mentioned. That's because Sewell wasn't able to record one over 45 career games.
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Based on what we know about the college career of Sewell and the fact that he went undrafted in the 2026 NFL Draft , Bears fans shouldn't expect him to play a major role on this defense even when Bryant is out.
Sewell instead will more than likely just be a depth piece for the time being. Of course, there's certainly a chance that Sewell can make some noise with this opportunity, but expectations shouldn't be very high.
The fact that the Bears didn't go out and make a major move when adding a safety makes it seem as if there really isn't any reason to worry about the injury to Bryant from a long-term outlook.
This story was originally published by Athlon Sports on Aug 5, 2026, where it first appeared in the NFL section. Add Athlon Sports as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
