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.