The Bears didn't want him, but his old coach might.
The Buccaneers announced Tim Jennings will visit with Tampa Bay on Tuesday, just two days after Chicago released the veteran cornerback.
Bucs coach Lovie Smith knows Jennings well, having brought him to the Bears in 2010 and coaching him for three seasons in the Windy City. Smith watched as Jennings led the league with nine interceptions in 2012, showing a penchant for ball-hawking coverage that could be of use to Tampa.
Jennings wasn't the same player last season, though, failing to record a pick over 16 games and dealing with an arrest on charges of speeding, reckless driving and driving under the influence in January. He's also coming off arthroscopic knee surgery. Still, this feels like a match.
Smith has signed a handful of former Bears, littering the roster with defenders who know his Cover-2 scheme. At 31, Jennings still has some gas in the tank and makes sense for a Bucs secondary that finished 28th in the league last season and lacks a true difference-maker outside of Alterraun Verner.