The Chicago Bears gave Nate Davis a large three-year contract in March 2023, believing he was a perfect fit for their offense. He was big, strong, and athletic. Unfortunately, as is often the case in free agency, they had no definitive way of measuring Davis’ commitment to the game. Since arriving in Chicago, a few things have become apparent. He has a poor work ethic, reportedly hates practice, and has a growing reputation for suffering constant injury setbacks. The fact he popped up this week for a groin issue was hardly a surprise.
Anybody with eyes could see that head coach Matt Eberflus was growing fed up with Davis’ unreliability. The belief is the Bears had planned to plug veteran Ryan Bates in at right guard once his shoulder injury was behind him. Sadly, he aggravated it and went on Injured Reserve. Chicago tried to see if Davis could make it work, but he’s been a disaster through the first two games. Now, according to Brad Biggs of the Chicago Tribune, the Bears plan to replace him with veteran Matt Pryor.
It would be surprising if Nate Davis plays again.
If the Bears have their way, Pryor will play well enough on Sunday to justify giving him more work. This would continue at least until Bates returns from IR and can assume the job full-time. Only Pryor getting hurt or looking completely lost would give him another chance. The 29-year-old has started 12 games as a right guard during his stints in Philadelphia and Indianapolis. Results were mixed. He had some truly horrible performances, but also some really good ones. Part of the problem was his former teams moved him around a lot, often between guard and tackle. It is difficult to find consistency that way.
Since arriving in Chicago, the Bears have kept Pryor at guard. He responded with a standout preseason, allowing only one QB pressure in 40 snaps. This isn’t what anybody would call the ideal solution. However, it had to happen. Nate Davis was a liability whether he was healthy or not. At some point, a team must accept that a player is a sunk cost and try something else.
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You’re argument is old. We are 1-1. If you want to keep a running tab on our current GM, and again I’m not an apologist for the guy, but I’d counter he came into the job hamstrung by Fields, Whitehair, and EJax. Wasted picks to trade up to draft a QB when we didn’t have a team in place in the first place, and giving big money to a guard and a safety who refused to tackle. Meanwhile, the rest of the cupboard was bear regarding talent on the team. We had an injured guard, and a 172 pound WR… Read more »
@jmscooby — I don’t want to rock your world — but if Caleb Sequan Williams “LLC” flames out and/or plays this year like a young QB (Bryce Young) we both think is better than he has shown so far — Chicago will erupt; and Ryan Poles will be on his way out the door. I don’t think that will happen — but these next three games will tell us both “truth and lies” as to where this 2024 Bears team is headed. If Caleb, Rome, Gervon and Kiran all come through — that would be a huge plus. But, if… Read more »
Well, clearly you are biased, TGenda. Our record is 1-1.
Sometimes generously paying an unselfish team leader affects “the culture” of the team positively.
Overpaying selfish players rarely does.
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Optimism might be wasted on this crew — unless 11-25 is what you’re after.
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Discuss amongst yourselves.
This is nothing new, is it? We have had the same issue in the past with Goldman and EJax. JMHO, I’d say the same about Tommie back in the day. It will happen again. You expect the player to be a professional and earn that paycheck. Again, I’m not a Poles apologist, but when he takes these risks, all the big money seems to be in the first 2 years. We stuck ourselves with Whitehair for 5 years. For a guard?!?! There is a 2M dead cap charge for Nate the Skate. I’m not sure if we are going to… Read more »