3 Bears That Must Be Cut This Offseason

3. Jonathan Owens, safety

With a new coaching staff we will likely see a lot of players who have filled out this Chicago Bears roster over the last couple of years replaced.

One of the guys who came in last offseason to help fill out the roster is veteran safety Jonathan Owens, who has been a valuable special teams and depth player throughout the course of his NFL career. And to be fair, he'd be rather inexpensive depth for any prospective head coach to keep around, so perhaps including him on a list like this is a stretch.

He is slated to count under $2 million against the salary cap but with more than $1.5 million in cap savings if he's let go. It's really not much, but it might be a performance-based situation based on this past season.

Owens was targeted in coverage 16 times according to Pro Football Reference, and he allowed 12 receptions. Among those, four were touchdowns. Pro Football Reference credits him with a QB rating in his coverage of 130.2 as well as a missed tackle rate of over nine percent, his highest percentage in three seasons.

It wasn't a banner year for Owens, by any means, and the Bears will obviously need someone to play a more effective role if they are needed for extensive snaps. Owens will also be 30 years this old this offseason, so the Bears could cut him and opt for some even less expensive youth at the safety position.

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