Chicago Bears add safety Bolden

The Chicago Bears have added yet another player who has a history with coach John Fox.

Special-teams standout and backup safety Omar Bolden has agreed to terms on a one-year contract with the Bears. The deal is worth $760,000, according to Troy Renck of The Denver Post.

Bolden has played his entire four-year career with the Broncos, including three years (2012-2014) when Fox was head coach in Denver.

Bolden has been almost exclusively a backup safety, with just one career start, and he is expected to provide depth behind starters Antrel Rolle and Adrian Amos. Rolle is 33 and missed nine games with injuries last season.

The 5-foot-10, 195-pound Bolden is a valuable special-teams player. He has a 24.7-yard career average on 44 kickoff returns and led the Broncos in special-teams tackles in 2014 with 9.

The competition for the Bears' kickoff-return job in 2016 should be interesting. Marc Mariani began the 2015 season as the No. 1 and averaged 26.1 yards on 16 attempts. But he was replaced near midseason by Deonte Thompson, who averaged 29.2 yards on 14 returns, which would have been second in the NFL if he had enough attempts to qualify.

Mariani and Thompson both re-signed with the Bears last month.

The 27-year-old Bolden was a fourth-round pick out of Arizona State. He suffered a sprained right knee in the divisional round of the playoffs, ending his 2015 season, and he missed four late-season games with a right-hamstring injury.

The Bears previously have added three other free agents who played for Fox in Denver: linebacker Danny Trevathan, guard-center Manny Ramirez and long snapper Aaron Brewer.

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