Are the Chicago Bears having regrets about one of their offseason decisions? Even if they are, they’d never admit. However, a lot of fans have made it clear they think the team made a mistake. What was it? Choosing to extend Danny Trevathan at inside linebacker rather than move to keep the younger Nick Kwiatkoski.
The Bears felt Trevathan’s leadership and greater versatility was worth more to them despite him being three years older. Kwiatkoski quickly chose to sign with the Las Vegas Raiders to become their new starting strong-side linebacker. Most people rightly thought that was the end of things.
Is it though? According to Vic Tafur of The Athletic, it appears the Raiders brass aren’t entirely happy with their investment to this point.
“The Raiders finally addressed their linebacking situation this offseason by throwing money at two promising free agents, Cory Littleton and Nick Kwiatkoski. Sadly for them, four games in, their best all-around linebacker might be Nicholas Morrow, who’s been here longer than Gruden and defensive coordinator Paul Guenther.
Kwiatkoski, who missed two games with a pectoral injury, has been good against the run but a non-factor in the passing game, while Littleton has been largely a no-show.”
As I wrote this morning, Raiders aren’t happy with their LB play. https://t.co/YIqbWHxqOA
— Vic Tafur (@VicTafur) October 10, 2020
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Could the Chicago Bears bring Nick back home?
It sounds crazy to even contemplate. Would a team consider unloading a player they just got done paying a lot of money to just a couple of months ago? Normally the answer is no. Then again the Raiders are anything but normal. John Gruden has proven time and again he’ll make crazy moves if he thinks it will help his team. This is the guy who traded Khalil Mack.
It would not be a stretch for him to unload Kwiatkoski. The question is, can he? Surprisingly, yes. While cutting him is out of the question, the Raiders would actually get $7 million back in salary cap with no dead money if they were to trade him. Compensation in draft capital likely wouldn’t be expensive either.
The big issue for the Bears is money. They’re already paying a sizable amount to Trevathan and they have no way of getting out of it. Kwiatkoski would carry a $7 million cap hit over the next two years. So unless he and the team could find a way to rework the deal, it would be challenging to pull this off.
