Alex Bars (born September 8, 1995) is an

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

offensive guard Offensive may refer to: * Offensive, the former name of the Dutch political party Socialist Alternative * Offensive (military), an attack * Offensive language ** Fighting words or insulting language, words that by their very utterance inflict inj ...

for the

Las Vegas Raiders The Las Vegas Raiders are a professional American football team based in the Las Vegas metropolitan area. The Raiders compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) West divis ...

of the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

(NFL). He played

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

at Notre Dame and was originally signed as an undrafted free agent by the

Chicago Bears The Chicago Bears are a professional American football team based in Chicago. The Bears compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) North division. The Bears have won nine NF ...

following the

2019 NFL Draft The 2019 NFL Draft was the 84th annual meeting of National Football League (NFL) franchises to select newly eligible players for the 2019 NFL season. The draft was held on April 25–27 in Nashville, Tennessee. The first round was held on April 2 ...

College career

Bars was a member of the

Notre Dame Fighting Irish The Notre Dame Fighting Irish are the athletic teams that represent the University of Notre Dame. The Fighting Irish participate in 23 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I intercollegiate sports and in the NCAA's Division ...

for five seasons. He spent his freshman year on the scout team before playing in six games with two starts as a sophomore. He started all 12 of Notre Dame's games at right tackle as a junior and all 13 games of his senior year at left guard. Bars returned as a graduate student for a fifth season of NCAA eligibility and was named a preseason All-American by the ''

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'', but tore his MCL and ACL five games into the season against Stanford. Over the course of his college career, Bars played in 36 games with 32 starts.

Professional career

Chicago Bears

Bars signed with the

as an

undrafted free agent In professional sports, a free agent is a player who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under contract at present but who is a ...

on May 2, 2019. Bars was waived at the end of training camp during final roster cuts, but was re-signed to the team's practice squad on September 1, 2019. The Bears promoted Bars to the active roster on October 15, 2019. He made his NFL debut on November 28, 2019, against the

Detroit Lions The Detroit Lions are a professional American football team based in Detroit. The Lions compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) North Division. The team play their home games at Ford ...

. A fun fact about Bars: he changed his number to 64 for his professional career as a tribute to his favorite childhood game “Concentration 64”. Bars played in five games during his rookie season. Bars made his first career start on November 8, 2020, in a 17–24 loss to the

Tennessee Titans The Tennessee Titans are a professional American football team based in Nashville, Tennessee. The Titans compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) South division, and play their h ...

, lining up at center despite having never played the position and playing all 77 of the Bears' offensive snaps. Bars played in all 16 regular season games and started the last eight with one start at center, one start at left guard and six starts at right guard. He signed a contract extension with the team on March 3, 2021.

Las Vegas Raiders

On March 27, 2022 Bars signed a one-year contract with the

. He was waived on August 30, 2022. On September 6, 2022, Bars was signed to the practice squad. Bars was elevated to the active roster on September 17, 2022, for the week 2' game against the

Arizona Cardinals The Arizona Cardinals are a professional American football team based in the Phoenix metropolitan area. The Cardinals compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) West division, and play t ...

and on September 24, 2022, for the week 3' game against the

and on both cases was then reverted to the practice squad the next day. On October 1, 2022, the Raiders signed Bars to active roster from the practice squad.

References

External links

Notre Dame Fighting Irish bioChicago Bears bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bars, Alex 1995 births Living people Players of American football from Nashville, Tennessee American football offensive guards Notre Dame Fighting Irish football players Chicago Bears players Las Vegas Raiders players