Windy City Gridiron
Nate Davis is still a free agent. Will that ever change?
The Nate Davis era is behind the Chicago Bears (and thank goodness for that).
But now that the dust has settled on the mess that it was, let’s look at Davis moving forward.
Davis isn’t a bad player, but his effort is abysmal. There’s one thing that NFL teams don’t like: players who don’t love the sport and aren’t available on game day. That is certainly how one would describe Nate Davis.
I think this is an interesting question to examine. I’m not trying to turn this into a Nate Davis hate column or just have the comments bash him to pieces. None of us like Nate Davis; he was one of the worst Chicago Bears we’ve seen in our lifetimes, but he’s off the team, and I just want to examine his future.
There are two sides to this. First, the NFL teams. Teven Jenkins received a 1-year deal worth $3 million because teams questioned his ability to stay on the field. Jenkins was certainly on the field a lot more than Nate Davis was over the last two years. So, if Jenkins, who has the ability, can’t find himself a starting position across 32 NFL teams, where would Davis end up?
If a team did take a chance on Davis, it would be a vet minimum deal with no money guaranteed. They would give Davis an invite to camp, and he would have to prove that he wants to be on the field, which brings us to the other side of this conversation: Does Nate Davis want to play in the NFL again?
It was clear Davis didn’t have a strong desire to get on the field in Chicago, as I reported when he initially signed in Chicago, there were concerns about that in Tennessee as well. So the question is, what does Nate Davis want to do?
Does he have any desire to play in the NFL again? He may not.
My answer: If you asked me to get inside Nate Davis’ head, and this is just my speculation, I think Nate Davis was a guy who didn’t like football, but knew it was a path to making a significant amount of money. He worked his way through his rookie contract, got the second contract that included $20 million guaranteed, and the day that was signed, he just knew he needed to show up for work for two years and collect his money. All he needed was to make sure he wasn’t in breach of contract.
That sounds rough to say about someone, but there is no evidence that shows me anything to the contrary. I know he lost his mother in 2023, and as someone who has lost both of my parents, I know how difficult that is to process, and I can’t imagine trying to do that in my 20s,...
