LINK – ASHLAND UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL PAGE
LINK – ADAM SHAHEEN'S CHICAGOBEARS.COM PAGE
Where does Chicago Bears rookie tight end Adam Shaheen spend one of his final 10 days prior to the start of his first National Football League training camp?
At his old stomping grounds, of course.
Shaheen was on the Ashland University campus on Friday (July 7), visiting and working out at Jack Miller Stadium/Martinelli Field, including running routes and catching passes from Ashland redshirt senior quarterback Travis Tarnowski. Shaheen will begin his first NFL training camp with the Bears on July 19 in Bourbonnais, Ill., after being drafted in the second round (No. 45 overall) of the 2017 NFL Draft.
"We've got a couple weeks off," Shaheen said. "Just trying to stay fresh. Came up to throw with Trav and work on some stuff."
The full Bears squad will have training camp from July 26-Aug. 13 at Olivet Nazarene University. That comes after a slate of organized team activities and a minicamp earlier in the offseason.
"I'm pumped. It's going to be hot, but it's going to be fun," said Shaheen, who is one of six tight ends currently listed on the Bears' roster. "I kind of relate it (the OTAs and minicamp) to spring ball, where we're trying to learn and better our craft and techniques and things like that."
The 6-foot-6 Shaheen will have a 6-foot-6 quarterback to work with in expected Chicago starter Mike Glennon. Shaheen's roommate, however, is a fellow rookie, first-round quarterback Mitchell Trubisky.
"He's a good guy," Shaheen said of Trubisky. "Glennon, he's a really good player. It will be fun to see those two compete in camp."
When asked what he will be looking to work on when the rookies report, Shaheen said, "A to Z. Everything."
Shaheen rose up NFL draft boards following a record-setting junior season at Ashland in 2016, one in which he caught a school-record and NCAA Division II single-season tight end-record 16 touchdown passes. Shaheen garnered many prestigious honors following and during the 2016 campaign - 2016-17 GLIAC Student-Athlete of the Year, 2016-17 AU Male Student-Athlete of the Year, fall 2016 GLIAC Commissioner's Award, first-team American Football Coaches Association (AFCA), D2CCA and D2Football.com first-team All-American; D2CCA and Don Hansen first-team All-Super Region 4, CoSIDA first-team Academic All-America, CoSIDA first-team Academic All-District, All-GLIAC first-team and a Harlon Hill Trophy (D-II Player of the Year) nomination.
On Oct. 10, 2016, Shaheen was the first tight end in GLIAC history to win the conference's Offensive Player of the Week award.
Shaheen grabbed a school tight end-record 70 passes as a sophomore in 2015. After starting just two seasons for the Eagles, he is No. 5 all-time in program history with 129 career catches, No. 10 in career receiving yards with 1,755 and was two receiving touchdowns away from tying the school's all-time record in that category.
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