The Chicago Bears made the right decision by bringing back Danny Trevathan for 2020.
Late Thursday evening, amidst all of the Coronavirus updates, came a glimmer of good news for Chicago Bears fans. The NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport reported that the team had agreed to terms on a new three-year deal with linebacker Danny Trevathan.
A likely direct consequence of this deal is the reality that Nick Kwiatkoski has played his last game in a Bears uniform. The former fourth-round pick in 2016 out of the University of West Virginia took some time to develop but had by far his best season last year filling in for Trevathan, who missed seven games with an elbow injury.
Despite Kwiatkoski’s renaissance and even Trevathan’s recent injury history, general manager Ryan Pace made the right decision in choosing Trevathan over Kwit.
For starters, the fact is Kwiatkoski likely priced himself out of the Bears’ market with his play last season. There has reportedly been a lot of interest from other teams as well as rumors of a possible $8-9 million/year payday.
That is an awful lot considering, although Kwit played well last season, it was a limited sample size. With the Bears already tenuous salary cap situation, there was little chance they were going to be able to pay Kwit that kind of money. They chose, instead, to let another team do so, and assume the risk that the end of last season was more of an aberration than reality for Nick.
If he does get paid handsomely somewhere else, it could increase the chances of the Bears landing another compensatory pick in 2021, although, with the number of free agents they could be bringing in this offseason (especially at premium positions) that could be an uphill battle.
Another reason the Bears made the right move on Trevathan is that he is clearly a leader in the Bears locker room. While that was clear before, it was reinforced with all the tweets from his teammates congratulating him on the new deal. His teammates were genuinely happy for him, and that’s because of how much he is respected by his peers.
With Trevathan in tow, the Bears must make one additional move to solidify the decision to keep him, and that is re-signing Kevin Pierre-Louis. An unrestricted free agent himself, Pierre-Louis enjoyed his own breakout 2019, playing exceedingly well towards the end of the year. In light of Trevathan’s injury history, the Bears would be wise to lock down a more than capable backup in Pierre-Louis. Once that’s complete, it will make their choosing Trevathan over Kwiatkoski a “slam-dunk.”