3 Chicago Bears players that could be cut this offseason

Danny Trevathan

After initially being one of the  best free agent signings of Ryan Pace, linebacker Danny Trevathan has become an example of Pace’s poor decision making.

After signing a four-year contract with the Chicago Bears worth $24.5 million after the 2015 regular season, Danny Trevathan became one of the best signings during Ryan Pace’s tenure as the team’s general manager.

Trevathan was a veteran presence in the middle of the Bears’ defense and was mentor for Roquan Smith.

After the 2019 season, Pace and the Bears had a decision to make. The decision was whether the team would re-sign Trevathan to be one of the team’s starting inside linebackers or re-sign Nick Kwiatkoski to replace Trevathan as a starter on defense. Instead of opting to re-sign Kwiatkoski, the Bears decided to sign Trevathan to a 3-year contract extension despite the veteran being 3 years older.

While Trevathan did play all 16 games, for the second time in his career with the Bears, in 2020 and compiled over 100 tackles; the veteran showed signs of slowing down towards the end of the season. Trevathan’s regression continued in 2021 as the veteran only appeared in 5 games for the Bears and was replaced by veteran Alec Ogletree on the starting defensive unit.

With the Bears moving to a Tampa-2 base defense, it seems likely that Trevathan will be cut this offseason. Trevathan would need to be a post-June 1 designated release for the Bears as the team would be forced to pay the linebacker $8.9 million if he is cut prior to that. Releasing Trevathan with a post-June 1 designation would only cost the Bears $2,4 million and save the team $3.2 million in cap space.