After playing all 17 regular-season games with the Indianapolis Colts in 2022, defensive lineman Byron Cowart didn’t play in any NFL regular-season games in 2023 – the second time in three years that he didn’t get on the playing field.

Cowart will attempt to get back in the game with the Chicago Bears in 2024. The NFL team announced it had signed the former Auburn lineman on Monday.

Cowart appeared on the rosters of three NFL teams last season.

On the field for 227 defensive snaps and 92 special-teams plays in 2022, Cowart had 12 tackles, including two tackles for loss as a reserve for the Colts.

Signed in free agency by the Kansas City Chiefs almost one year ago, Cowart was with the team less than two months before being released. Houston signed him on May 18, but Cowart was cut on Aug. 29, when the Texans reduced their preseason roster to the regular-season limit.

When the Miami Dolphins moved former Alabama standout Da’Shawn Hand from their practice squad to their active roster on Sept. 19, they signed Cowart for the practice squad, and he spent the rest of the 2023 NFL season there.

The Bears return their starters along the defensive line – tackles Andrew Billings and Gervon Dexter and ends Montez Sweat and DeMarcus Walker.

Once ranked as the No. 1 recruit in the 2015 signing class, Cowart played at Auburn in 2015 and 2016 before being granted his release early in the 2017 season. Cowart cited his lack of playing time and the health of his mother as the reasons he sought to leave the Tigers. Cowart played at Maryland in the 2018 season.

Cowart joined the New England Patriots in the fifth round of the 2019 NFL Draft. He played in five games as a rookie, then made 14 starts in his second season, when he totaled 29 tackles and recorded one sack while playing 419 defensive snaps.

Cowart did not play during the 2021 season. He opened training camp on the physically-unable-to-perform list with an undisclosed injury and never came off it.

The Patriots waived Cowart on July 22, 2022, and he joined the Colts the next day as a waiver claim.

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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.