With three games remaining on their regular season schedule, the Chicago Bears are on the cusp of their first playoff appearance since the 2020 season, when they fell in the Wild Card round to the New Orleans Saints.
Ben Johnson's first season at the helm in the Windy City has been an unquestioned success, but that doesn't mean there haven't been plenty of ups and downs along the way to reach this point. While the primary focus of the locker room is on the Week 16 matchup against the Green Bay Packers, the front office needs to have an eye on the future, and that is not the best thing for veteran defensive back Nick McCloud.
Nick McCloud Shouldn't Be Part of Chicago's Long-Term Plans
It should be noted that McCloud was brought in on a one-year deal to serve as a depth piece, not a player who would be depended on as part of Chicago's last line of defense. Injuries happen, though, and teams must adjust. This is what led the Bears to inject McCloud into the lineup in the first place. Unfortunately, though, his play has not left the front office or coaching staff with many reasons to keep him around beyond the 2025 campaign.
While it shouldn't be used as the lone metric to assess a player's performance, McCloud's Pro Football Focus grades do not paint a pretty picture for a defender who was auditioning for the rest of the league this season just as much as he was selling himself to Chicago's front office. McCloud's overall PFF grade of 49.0 ranks him as the seventh-worst cornerback in the league, who has played enough snaps to be eligible for a grade. Being considered the 106th best CB out of 112 options is not an endearing quality, no matter how you spin it.
The fact that opposing offenses are actively seeking him out whenever he takes the field is another issue that McCloud has shown little ability to overcome. Of the 23 receptions he has allowed on the season, opposing receivers are gaining an average of 13.3 yards per catch. In addition to giving up a first down, on average, with every reception allowed, McCloud has made things rather easy on opposing QBs, allowing a passer rating of 150.4 when the ball is thrown in his direction.
All of these reasons alone would be enough for Chicago to feel confident in moving on from the defender. The fact that they already have a potential replacement in-house in rookie Zah Frazier, who missed the 2025 campaign due to what the team described as a "personal" reason, should make letting McCloud go this offseason even easier.