Dan Feeney is on the move again. The former third-round pick, who signed with the Dolphins this offseason, will not be part of their 53-man roster. Instead, the Bears will acquire him via trade.
The Dolphins and Bears agreed on the deal Monday night, Brad Biggs of the Chicago Tribune tweets. Dolphins Wire’s Jason Sarney initially reported Biggs was Windy City-bound. This will be Feeney’s fourth NFL team. He played out his rookie deal with the Chargers and spent the past two seasons with the Jets.
Despite the Dolphins guaranteeing Feeney $3.13MM this offseason, they will use him to acquire an asset. Miami will pick up a sixth-rounder from Chicago in this swap, Jason Lieser of the Chicago Sun-Times reports. Miami has Robert Hunt, Liam Eichenberg and Isaiah Wynn stationed at guard and Connor Williams at center. Although the team lost Michael Deiter in free agency and dealt with rampant injury trouble along its O-line last season, Feeney will still be shipped out. Feeney had not made a serious push for a starting job, the Miami Herald’s Barry Jackson tweets.
In Chicago, Feeney will have a better opportunity for playing time. Left guard Teven Jenkins is set to miss early-season time due to a leg injury. At full strength, the Bears have Jenkins set to team with Cody Whitehair and Nate Davis. Whitehair is moving back to center this season, with the Bears having signed Davis. While Lucas Patrick looms as a possible Jenkins replacement, Lieser notes the Bears have slid Whitehair back to guard to fill in for Jenkins. Feeney, 29, brings considerable experience at guard as well, and Patrick and Davis have each missed some time recently due to injury.
The Chargers used Feeney as a guard starter for most of his Los Angeles run. The Indiana alum displayed durability with the Bolts, starting 16 games in each season from 2018-20. The Chargers moved on in 2021, signing Matt Feiler. The Jets did not use Feeney as a regular starter. While Feeney continued his run of good health in New York, missing only one game, he only started seven. Still, Feeney will bring plenty of experience to a Bears team that has seen its revamped O-line take an early hit.
This will be a homecoming for Feeney, who is a Chicago-area native. The Bears came into Monday night with just more than $12MM in cap space. After showing potential as a guard last season, Jenkins will not be able to mount an immediate follow-up. The injury he sustained could sideline him for around six weeks. Chicago cut Alex Leatherwood, after claiming him just after cutdown day last year, but still rosters 2022 seventh-round pick Ja’Tyre Carter as a backup option inside.
Tell me he doesn’t look like Ted Lasso 🙂
src: NFL Computer Picks – 3 minutes and 10 seconds
Biggs already in Chicago!
Is this even an improvement over Leatherwood? Sounds like a step sideways to me.
A 3rd round pick who’s coming into his 7th year consistently finding jobs vs a 1st round pick who was ditched by two teams in two years. Yeah, that’s a real toss up as to who’s better.
Raiders’ 1st round pick*
*It should be noted that most 1st round picks made by Oakland/LA/Oakland/LV would typically be considered 2nd or 3rd round picks by most other organizations.
Well Leatherwood’s only been in the League 2 years so I guess I won’t hold the fact that he hasn’t found jobs that long against him. And who’s to say 5 years from now he’s not still in the League? Anyway I have no particular love of Leatherwood at all so I could care less. I’m just saying trading for this guy today might be a waste of assets when we see what’s available tomorrow for free. I’ve never heard of the guy one way or another so I guess I’ll trust in Poles and Getsy until proven otherwise. Poles has shown a distinct ability to trade down so I have no doubt he’ll recoup that pick anyway if he wants.
You have more faith in Poles than I do. Yeah, he created a ton of cap space but any GM can accomplish that by signing low cost rentals and waiver castoffs to replace other players that were more expensive. I haven’t seen any evidence at all that this guy knows how to conduct a proper rebuild that will get the team back in contention. Signing a washed up bum like Mercedes Lewis sure ain’t gonna get er done.
You’re basically giving up a sixth round pick for Feeney’s moustache. The rest of him is a placeholder at best until Teven Jenkins is ready to return.
Well Poles is making some mistakes IMO. Mistake 1 was passing up Schmitz in the 2nd rd. For the CB who either commits a penalty or intercepts the ball. How fine would Schmitz look as starting C with Whitehair at LG and Carter at RG? Mistake 2 is signing this new walking injury Davis. Now the Bears have Patrick, Davis and Jenkins as the Cast of Red Badge of no courage. They could of cut Patrick and saved 5 million bucks. Is he even real? I mean has he played more than 10 plays for the Bears without getting injured? Why’s he still here? There’s still way more questions than there need to be at this point that should have been fixed without talking all this nonsense about RB’s and Chris Jones who’s not going anywhere. It’s 2 weeks until the season and we know less than we did when OTA’s started. Brutal.
I’m hoping Whitehair goes back to center (his best position) and Feeney goes to LG. Patrick was horrendous as a fill in guard last season and hopefully he’s a reserve center. But if Nate Davis, whose been a no-show, doesn’t make it back, then all that changes.
The Ravens cut Houston-Carson too. The Bears should absolutely pick him back up since Jackson and Brisker have been injured all camp. He’s a solid B/U and Special Teamer to boot.
Bears hold first seed on the waiver wire, so I’m sure if someone of someone surprising comes available they will pounce on it for the OL.