The Bears are expected to release Danny Trevathan, according to Brad Biggs of the Chicago Tribune. His release clear upwards of $5MM from this year’s books but those savings would be negated by a $8.9MM dead money charge. 
[RELATED: Bears To Release Cohen]
Trevathan, soon to be 32, has been with the Bears since 2016. A training camp knee injury camp sidelined him to start 2021, but he returned after missing the first four games. His presence alongside Roquan Smith figured to strengthen Chicago’s defense, but he wound up back on IR in November. Appearing mostly as a reserve, Trevathan registered just 19 tackles across five games and appeared in roughly one-quarter of Chicago’s snaps. That’s a big drop from 2020 when Trevathan turned in a full slate, registered 113 stops, and helped bring the Bears to the playoffs.
New Bears GM Ryan Poles has made a point to clear out many of Ryan Pace’s high-priced veterans, so this is on-brand with his overall offseason plan. Already, he’s released longtime running back Tarik Cohen and traded star edge rusher Khalil Mack to the Chargers. That deal netted him a 2022 second-round pick, a 2023 sixth-round selection, and more flexibility to spend in free agency.
Trevathan, meanwhile, should be able to land a new deal elsewhere if he’s healthy and wants to continue playing.
The fire sale continues!
He’s been in serious decline for a couple of years. Shoulda done it last year and dumped Graham as well.
“His release clear upwards of $5MM from this year’s books but those savings would be negated by a $8.9MM dead money charge.”
So the move is saving them negative $3 million in cap space? Then why do it? Does it save them money next year or something? Or is it strictly cost savings and they don’t need the cap space?
I have to say, PFR has been doing a poor job of summarizing overall cap impact of moves. Between this and the Mack post yesterday, they failed to provide a decent summary of the future cap impacts of either move and in doing so they fail to give insight into why these moves happened. The Mack article made it sound like all the Bears got was $6M in cap savings when in reality it’s $6 this year, like $17 next and $20 the year after (numbers from memory so maybe be a bit off). If you aren’t talking about the future year cap savings, you aren’t really talking about what’s important
Thanks. Them saving on the cap next year makes sense, because from the other stuff I was looking at, it looked like it confirmed that they’re saving negative $3 million this year.
All of which underscores the Byzantine quality of the cap system. It is beyond comprehensible to the average fan and, indeed, to team brass who must rely on cap experts.
That’s what you get for pushing money down the road constantly. The bill comes due eventually. Ask the Packers. and a lot of other teams. I like what Poles is doing. He’s taking his medicine head on and dealing with the horrible taste. Bears have 175 million in cap space next year according to Sportrac minus whatever FA’s Poles signs this year. Now if he drafts as well as he clears away garbage….
Gonna miss him, he was a beast back few years ago, so long Danny!
Another outstanding Pace extension. They couldn’t even get some used hot dog wrappers for these guys.
A little known fact is that Trevathan was one of the two picks the Broncos received from the Jets for Tebow. He was the sixth rounder. The fourth rounder didn’t last long in the NFL, but has had a long successful career in the CFL. Since he’s Canadian, he didn’t count against the 50% foreign player limit. I believe Trevathan signed a lucrative contract as an FA with the Bears, so the Broncos got a compensatory pick out of the deal. I think I tracked down who it was once and I think Broncos got some play out of him, so overall it wasn’t a bad haul for Tebow for Denver.
It is a negative 3 mill cap charge (not a savings) unless Danny is one of two allowable designated Post June 1st cuts. I’m not sure why they’d cut him if they cannot spread out the cap impact. Losing another 3 million in cap space won’t help this year, if they don’t designate him Post June 1.