The Chicago Bears have made the decision they are better off paying Nate Davis to no longer be on the team than carrying him as a reserve.
The team released the veteran guard on Wednesday, an admission of the miss they made when signing him to a $30 million, three-year contract in free agency in March 2023, leaving them on the hook for the remainder of his base salary this season.
It’s an abrupt move because teams generally wait until the offseason for roster shuffling that includes discarding free-agent busts, but it’s not surprising given that Davis had fallen on the depth chart. He was behind Bill Murray for the Week 5 game against Carolina and then a healthy inactive the following week against Jacksonville in London.
Issues with Davis ran so deep the Bears chose to cut him even though they’ve been banged up on the offensive line. Left guard Teven Jenkins left Sunday’s loss to the New England Patriots with an ankle injury. Left tackle Braxton Jones has missed the last two games with a knee injury and right tackle Darnell Wright was inactive last week with a knee issue.
Davis would have been in uniform Sunday against the Patriots but arrived at Soldier Field and reported a back issue. He was checked out and made inactive with the team forced to play with only seven offensive linemen.
The Bears were optimistic Davis, who started 13 games for them, would bounce back this season after a disappointing first year. They publicly backed him at every turn until the first week of August when a lingering groin injury sidelined him and coach Matt Eberflus sent a pretty clear message.
“If a person’s out for an extended period of time and the player that’s in that position is playing very well, at a starter level, and doing a good job there, then you create the competition,” Eberflus said on Aug. 6.
“You say, ‘Hey, there’s a competition.’ People say you can’t lose a job because of injury. I don’t think that’s true. I think if the guy that’s playing there gives our team a good look and a good benefit for him being in that position, then it’s a competition. Or the other guy could take it over. That’s not just at guard. That’s at all positions.”
Davis, 28, started the first two games but the groin injury popped up again before the Week 3 game at Indianapolis and Matt Pryor replaced him in the starting lineup. Two weeks after that, Murray was summoned as the first man off the bench when Teven Jenkins was injured. A week after that, Davis didn’t get a uniform in London.
The Bears believed Davis would at minimum be a depth piece for them this season but with other players healing up, they’ve chosen to move on.
Davis’ base salary of $8.75 million is fully guaranteed for this season so the Bears will be on the hook for the full boat although there will be an offset if another team picks him up. His contract included $19.25 million guaranteed and the Bears will wind up paying most if not all of that.
Davis missed two games early last season following the death of his mother and then another four games after suffering a high-ankle sprain. He was only a partial participant in the team’s voluntary offseason workout program in that first year which is a little unusual after a team rewards a player in free agency.
One source with knowledge of Davis’ history said he didn’t practice for Tennessee, his former team, “unless everything was right.” That proved to be the case with the Bears, who were initially drawn to Davis because they believed he was a good fit for their offensive scheme with the ability to move well. He was part of an effective line that created a lot of holes for Titans running back Derrick Henry but the availability issues that led Tennessee to sour on him were only magnified with the Bears.
While general manager Ryan Poles missed on Davis, he had some other signings in a busy 2023 free agency period that have been strong additions. That list begins with defensive tackle Andrew Billings, who already earned a contract extension, and includes linebackers T.J. Edwards and Tremaine Edmunds. Edwards could be in line for a pay raise after this season as he’s outperformed the terms of his $19.5 million, three-year contract. The Bears also added defensive end DeMarcus Walker last offseason.
This year, Poles has done well with the signing of free safety Kevin Byard and running back D’Andre Swift has really come on following a slow start.
