Barely a week after the Bears were unable to find a trade partner to unload Nate Davis, the team is moving on from the underwhelming free agent signing. Chicago cut Davis on Wednesday.
Although Davis is a vested veteran, he will head to waivers due to the trade deadline having passed. He is tied to a through-2025 contract, one the Bears did not view him as justifying. After trade efforts proved fruitless, this cut comes shortly after the Bears dismissed Shane Waldron as their OC.
A waiver claim should be considered unlikely due to Davis’ performance and prorated base salary. The benched blocker is owed $3.9MM in remaining base pay for this season, as he entered the year with a fully guaranteed $8.75MM base salary for the second year of his contract.
The Bears gave Davis a three-year, $30MM deal in 2023 but did not see the commitment pay off. The Maine native was mentioned as a 2025 cut candidate, but the Bears — who are giving the play-calling reins to pass-game coordinator Thomas Brown — are not waiting.
Davis, 28, has not played since Week 5. Even with would-be starter Ryan Bates on IR, the Bears deactivated Davis to insert Matt Pryor into their starting lineup. A former third-round pick, Davis had been a four-year starter for the Titans who commanded a nice market last year. He did not impress too much in Year 1 with the Bears, who used him as a starter in all 11 games he played. Davis came back to start just two games this season, and the Bears will take on some dead money to dump this contract.
The deal includes no guaranteed money beyond 2024, but it does feature $2MM in prorated signing bonus. The Bears will eat that and, assuming no one claims Davis, the remaining $3.9MM on his 2024 salary. This marks a steep fall for Davis, who had started 54 games in Tennessee and was a generally durable player on an O-line that featured some injury trouble at other spots. As the Titans dealt with Taylor Lewan‘s knee trouble and struggled to replace Jack Conklin at right tackle, they could depend on Davis, a starter during Derrick Henry‘s two journeys to rushing titles.
Pro Football Focus ranked Davis as a top-25 guard from 2020-22. Among guards in the 2023 free agent class, only Ben Powers fared better in terms of AAV. The Bears had attempted to pair an eight-figure Davis AAV with Teven Jenkins‘ rookie contract. No serious Jenkins extension talks have begun, as Chicago’s line has underwhelmed this season. A new coaching staff will presumably be tasked with improving the group next year, and it will be interesting to see if GM Ryan Poles will be given a chance to formulate the plan up front. As of now, the third-year front office boss looks like a slightly better bet to stay than HC Matt Eberflus.
The Bears have Bates healthy again, as the trade pickup’s Week 1 injury kept him off the field for two months. Bates returned to the starting lineup against the Patriots, a game in which the Bears allowed nine sacks. Bates is under contract through 2025, while Jenkins is in a walk year.
One of the worst signings in the Ryan Poles era. I have yet to meet someone who has validated this signing. If it wasn’t the lack of quality offensive lineman on this team, he would have been cut before the 53 man roster.
F for this signing.
was going to say the same thing, huge whiff by Poles. The fact he can’t crack the starting lineup on this team speaks volumes. Is this worse than Claypool?
I think their both equally horrible in their own given way. Claypool was awful and terrible and might be out of the league forever, and you gave up the 32nd pick which turned out to be Porter Jr. The only saving face is that, he found Dexter in the same round (pick 53), and Stevenson (besides his ADD issues during this season, has been really good).
Davis got $10M though per year, that easily could have gone to acquire some depth at the DE position.
Well Claypool cost a draft pick that could have been a fantastic O lineman. Davis only cost money but a lot of money. That just makes Claypool the worst of the 2. But yeah, Not Poles finest hour. He should already be looking to trade that 1st round pick down a few spots maybe and getting more picks. If their are bunch of O lineman available when the Bears pick then he should be getting more picks. Wright is OK, Jones is probably more suited to being a B/U swing tackle. Pryor can be kept as a solid reserve. The rest need to be replaced. In FA you need a LT. Reports are saying Zach Martin wants to come. 5 years ago I’d have said fantastic. He hasn’t been very good for a couple of years now. LT’s are hard to find which makes me think maybe move Wright to LT. Probably better off drafting one or more. The Bears have been playing an under sized middle of the O line for years now. In today’s NFL beef inside is what is popular. Recognize it, Draft it, Coach it, The key is finding a Coaching staff that knows what they’re doing.
They need to draft OL with the 1st round pick, then trade Carolina’s 2nd and next year’s 1st to get back into the 1st round and taken another OL.
If you are truly believing this team has enough talent to win, then cough up a 1st and get your OL figured out.
Get a veteran center who knows protection schemes, blitzes and etc for Caleb too. It’ll go a long way for his development.
They also need another stud DT. Pickens doesn’t look like the answer to any question. Amegadjie doesn’t look like the answer to anything either. I wouldn’t know though I’ve only seen him for less than a half all year. But just by that fact probably not. The most important thing for the OL and DL is showing up every game. And having quality B/U’s also. But more than that they have to be versatile. That’s why i like Pryor. He’s a quality B/U and can play 4 positions. That’s the kind of guy you need. Brisker needs to play football, Not Demolition Derby. He hurts himself more than the guys he hits, Just freakin tackle the guy. Stop trying to be on Sports Center. Bears are always the most injured team. Is it bad drafting? Lousy Conditioning? Eberflus dumb decision nobody plays in Pre Season? I think the reason the O line is always hurt is because they are under sized and get run over constantly. Stevenson needs to play football and stop trying to be a show off. But that’s all coaching fixes that can be made. A good HC wouldn’t put up with that for long. But we know what we have. And now we get to see who Poles really would hire. I think Poles and Warren work well together. Neither was really here when this was put together. Let’s see what they do now.
While I completely agree with everyone’s take here, in Poles defense, the guy had a couple of pretty solid years in Nashville. Even still, it was an overpay.
I think it’s just proof you can put ANYBODY in front of Derrick Henry and he’ll look good.
Powers got $52M with $29M guaranteed and has been serviceable, he was priced where the market was and had several teams with cap space after him. He was a top 15 G through his rookie deal. Sometimes guys get paid and just lose the desire to be on the field anymore. Every GM/team has experienced this.
Another thing the Bears need to do immediately is fire whoever those people they use to evaluate coaching hires. I have no idea who those people are but they need to be taken outside and slapped in the face. They haven’t been right since Lovie Smith. Ditka was hired by Jerry Vainisi. So that’s once in 40 years. In baseball that would be 0.025. Even Wisdom hits better than that. Barely. Talk about stealin.
You right uncle. Lovie was not perfect and had some flaws. But the team was always prepared and had some discipline. Lovie was a good leader and had good leadership and had several good leaders
on his teams during his tenure. Urlacher, Briggs, Tillman, Kreutz,Garza, Forte, Clark, Brown. Those are some players who ensured the game was played the right way.
They signed Ricky Stromberg. i really liked him in the draft and they passed him by. Now they get him for free. I hope they get him off the practice squad fast because he might get poached. I remember him being highly thought of and you should never look a gift horse in the mouth. Solid add I think.
It’s the same guy who’s ok’d every hire for years- McCaskey- The Elmer Fudd of NFL owners.
Trace Armstrong just takes him to dinner and gets him to hire all of his clients. His man crush is strong.
I didnt think he was all that with the Titans as well. Why couldnt the Bear’s line coach motivate him better?
Have you seen the state of the Bears coaching staff right now?
What coaching staff? haha
T-Shirts for Bears coaching staff seen. ” The Lame Ducks”.
And where is GM Ryan Poles during this train wreck? My guess deep inside a bunker somewhere in Lake Forest. I’m just used to hearing from the Cubs, Blackhawks, Bulls and even the Sox front office executives get in front of the camera or mic and give some explanations. At least show yourself and provide some insight and hopefully some calming thoughts.
I wish everyone would stop saying Poles hired these idiots. The McCaskey influence did all the research on all the coaches they interviewed. Supposedly Poles hired Eberflus 2 days after he was hired? So in 2 days he had the time needed to do a proper search? C’mon! Well he has plenty of time now. So you can blame him for the next one but you seriously can’t blame him for the last one. Where’s McCaskey? It was his firm and his influence that made the search. Where’s he?
My personal short list would be Ben Johnson, Flores, Kirby Smart, Kingsbury, Dan Lanning. I’d start there. At least with Flores the Defense would be interesting. They wouldn’t rush 4 and bend but don’t break. it would a cool chess game again.
My personal choice (if he were still alive) would be Dennis “The Bears are who we thought they were” Green 🙂
I was kind of surprised as well he got that kind of money because I had never heard of him. That’s usually a good thing with O lineman but in this case probably not. Football has the most people on a roster in Sports so there are going to be more misses just by sheer numbers. I think F would be too high a grade in this case. Davis never really showed any interest in playing here from Day 1 except on Payday. Pretty sure he was first in line there every time. And maybe in the lunch line. It sure wasn’t on the O line. With 53 guys plus 16 practice team guys you have 70 ways to miss. But this was a Grand Canyon Miss.
Sometimes there more than just the talent that needs to be assessed when signing a free agent the drive and leadership are just as important. Nate and his agent sold him and Poles bought, lesson hopefully learned.
The thing that Ryan Poles needed to question, and it’s like he did.At least I would believe. Is why would the Titans not be willing to resign a 26 year old guard that they drafted in the 2nd round? The Titans were not salary pinched. Unfortunately he was way off. Same question can be asked about Claypool. Something obviously stinks as to why those players were not resigned or traded and Poles couldn’t understand that. So far, with the way things are going this season I have to wonder about Poles judgement in people.
Hes a Patriot
Need to use all 3 of next year’s 1st and 2nd round picks on the trenches. 2 in the offensive live and 1 on the defense line
Assuming they bring back Sanborn and Carter and let most of what’s left from their pending FAs walk, they should have somewhere in the neighborhood of 70 million in cap space this offseason (prior to the draft).
Not sure if the Chiefs and Ravens will be able to resign Trey Smith and Ronnie Stanley respectively, but if they somehow make to to FA, the Bears should absolutely try and sign both. If they can’t get one of them, then Zach Martin, while past his prime, would still be a solid add. Ryan Kelly at center would also be a needed upgrade.
Beyond landing two of those players, they should absolutely be looking to go OL with two of their three first and second round picks. I could see a scenario where the Bears lose enough to get up to a spot where Will Campbell is available to them. Bring him in at RT, move Wright to RG or, assuming the Bears don’t land Stanley, Campbell would be a great option at LT. Would love to see Savaiinaea or Booker slip to the Bears in the 2nd, but I doubt that happens. Donovan Jackson would be a good get as well.
Any way you slice it, the Bears will have options. Just hope they have some level of desire to dramatically overhaul a position that’s been plaguing them since the latter years of Trubisky’s time in Chicago.