Chicago Bears offensive tackle Roy Mbaeteka has always considered himself a patient person with an ability to see the bigger picture. Thus, as he paced the sideline at Soldier Field during Saturday’s preseason finale against the Buffalo Bills, he suppressed his restlessness with a double dose of football curiosity.
For 3 hours and 9 minutes, with the Bears running 59 plays on offense and 27 more on special teams, Mbaeteka waited to see if he’d get another brief opportunity for in-game action. But his call never came. He saw only two snaps across the entire month of NFL preseason games — as part of the Bears field goal team.
But why would Mbaeteka pout or check out when his education in the sport where he is trying to build a career remains elementary?
“I don’t like to dwell on negative thoughts,” he said. “Even standing there and watching, I’m still learning a lot about this game and observing other people to see how they operate. There’s a big learning curve for me.
“Do I want to be out there? Yes. But I still believe that on this journey, there will be perfect timing.”
Maybe now is the perfect time to mention Mbaeteka’s entry into football came just a little more than five years ago — in his late teens in Nigeria as he and others interested in the sport practiced with rudimentary understanding picked up through YouTube.
Maybe here is the spot to emphasize Mbaeteka has played in only four football games. In his life. At any level. (And they have all been in the NFL preseason.)
Maybe this is where we pull back the curtain on Mbaeteka’s trek through the league’s International Player Pathway program and wonder whether this driven, humble, curious 6-foot-9, 320-pound giant has a real chance to take what has already been a dream and turn it into a riveting fairy tale.
“I take my journey as it comes. Day by day,” Mbaeteka said. “This is all part of a bigger plan.”
Mbaeteka wasn’t exactly all-in on the day his football journey truly accelerated. He was just being agreeable in the summer of 2021 when a buddy, Sodiq Muhammed, urged him to come along to the Uprise camp in Abuja, the capital of Nigeria.
Mbaeteka was 20 years old, living in Lagos and pushing to figure out what he was going to do next. For three years, he had pursued basketball. And why wouldn’t he? He had rare size plus attention-grabbing dexterity and grace. Yet no matter how much talent he possessed or how much promise he showed, every time he attended a camp with hopes of making a life-changing breakthrough, he’d fall just short.
“There was always something, some reason,” Mbaeteka said. “I was always getting right to the finish line but never getting across.”
So Mbaeteka wasn’t expecting anything momentous when he agreed to drop in at Uprise, the talent-discovery stage that former New York Giants standout and fellow Nigerian Osi Umenyiora had set up in Abuja. Mbaeteka certainly wasn’t expecting to essentially teleport to the NFL, where he broke in with the Giants last season and is now looking to further his career with the Bears.
When Muhammed urged him to attend Uprise, he was simply agreeing to take a swing. First, though, Mbaeteka and his friend needed to navigate the 470 miles from Lagos to Abuja. They had no vehicle and limited funds, instead leaning on a “What the heck?” spirit when they decided they’d somehow hitch a ride.
“Mind you,” Mbaeteka said, “this was immediately after the COVID-19 lockdown had lifted. Nobody was giving anybody a ride.”
In some respects, Mbaeteka resigned himself to the most likely outcome.
“In my mind, I’m thinking, ‘I’m just going to stand here by the road for a couple hours and when nothing happens I’ll go back home.’ Just making it look like, ‘Hey, I gave it a shot.’”
Nevertheless, at a gas station in Lagos, a stranger noticed Mbaeteka and Muhammed lingering — each with just a lightly packed travel bag — and was genuinely curious about what they were up to. The man was a fan of American football and headed in the direction of Abuja, offering to take Mbaeteka and Muhammed most of the way.
The ride? Just a quick 11 1/2-hour field trip — full of dreams and imparted wisdom. “Fatherly advice almost,” Mbaeteka called it.
“It was almost like he was sent to us,” he added.
When the driver reached the end of his trek, he dropped the two football hopefuls off and gave them money to grab a bus for the rest of the way.
At the Uprise tryout, Mbaeteka caught the eyes of Umenyiora and co-director Ejike Ugboaja, showing enough athleticism and promise to receive his proverbial golden ticket. That was it right there, the twist of fate that gave Mbaeteka his invitation to the NFL’s International Combine in London which then pushed him on to a 10-week training program in Arizona as part of the International Player Pathway program.
From there, he received his first professional contract with the Giants, spending 2022 on the team’s practice squad before re-entering the NFL’s IPP and being assigned to the Bears in May.
At this point, Mbaeteka projects as a 10,000,000:1 long shot to make the 53-man roster by Tuesday’s deadline. Even that might be generous. More likely, he will be asked to see general manager Ryan Poles in the next two days and told he is being cut. Still, there is a strong possibility his fall will be cushioned with an invitation to the practice squad this week.
“Hopefully,” Mbaeteka said.
The Bears essentially hold a no-risk exemption with an extra practice squad spot as part of the league’s International Player Pathway program guidelines.
Offensive line coach Chris Morgan is eager to continue aiding Mbaeteka’s development. “Every day he’s just, ‘I’m going to get a little bit better. Every day I’m going to gain a little more understanding.’ He wants to learn,” Morgan said.
That’s been part of the book on Mbaeteka since he began this journey two-plus years ago, fueling the ride with intelligence, focus and diligence. Combine that with his size, length and agility, factor in his lack of playing experience, and it’s easy to imagine what he could one day become.
“Like, Roy has not played football,” Morgan said. “So yes, there’s a lot of regard put into that, seeing where he’s at with absolutely no track record. It’s pretty impressive when you think about it.”
A year ago, former Pro Bowl offensive lineman LeCharles Bentley, now the NFL’s senior adviser of player performance and development, called Mbaeteka “by far the most physically advanced athlete I’ve worked with at his current stage of growth and development.”
“My knowledge is now miles from where I started,” he said. “But I still have a million miles to go.”
He laughs when he reflects now on how surface-level his YouTube introduction to the sport was.
“We would do drills based on what we watched. But it was completely simple. We never went into game concepts. It was more, ‘This is pass blocking. This is run blocking.’ It was just entirely a broad concept thing, like ‘Just run and block that guy.’ And all the defensive guys did was come at you or bull rush or try to beat you (around the edge). Everything was made simple.
“It’s different playing checkers than it is playing chess.”
Now, as Mbaeteka continues to understand and embrace the complexity of the game, he has understood why the Bears have limited his exposure to game action.
“As much as I want to be out there,” he said, “I don’t want to jump in when I’m not ready yet and then butcher things up for everybody else.
“This is a true team sport. And if I’m not ready to help my team, I’m just going to be a loose end that is messing with the whole thing.”
That’s been part of football’s draw to Mbaeteka, the way everything must fit together for success to materialize. On Saturday, as he again played the role of observant onlooker, Mbaeteka found himself marveling at his teammates.
“I appreciate the level of effort,” he said. “It’s amazing watching a bunch of guys go out there and play for something bigger than themselves. Every time I watch, I see these guys playing in a way where they’re making sure the person next to them can do well also.
“It’s always amazing. Every time I see that, I say to myself, ‘Man, I really want to do this. I really, really want to do this.’”
Mbaeteka will continue trying, hoping this week the Bears will further his opportunity for another developmental season that will be, in so many different ways, dizzying.
“I don’t think my head will ever stop spinning throughout this journey,” Mbaeteka said. “That’s fun for me. I don’t think I want it to stop spinning. I want everything to keep happening like this is a big story. And with every step that passes, a new chapter is unfolding.”
[chicagotribune]