Five Bears with the most to lose in 2017

4. Danny Trevathan

Danny Trevathan happens to find himself in a similar situation to the 2015 version of Victor Cruz. Trevathan tore his patellar tendon in 2016. On one hand, Trevathan is younger and could heal faster than Cruz. On the other, his injured occurred much later into the season, and Cruz missed over a year with the injury. There is a realistic possibility that Trevathan does not take a snap this season.

This means that Nick Kwiatkowski is going to get every chance in the world to take over a starting job. If he does win that job, Trevathan could be seen as a very expendable, high risk, low reward bet.

Trevathan is going to cost $7 million against the cap in 2018. However, if cut he only costs the team a bit more than $2 million. If Kwiatkowski does take over the starting job, and Trevathan does end up missing a full season due to his injury, cutting Trevathan in 2018 is absolutely on the table.

From there, Trevathan would have to take the Cruz route of signing a one-year deal for prove-it money. Trevathan is a bit younger but that type of treatment may go on for the rest of his career. Let’s just say Trevathan will be motivated to get into the lineup as quickly as possible.