Chicago Bears Stay or Go: John Jenkins
Should the Chicago Bears extend John Jenkins, or let him walk?
John Jenkins saw some rotational playing time for the Chicago Bears in 2017. Did he show them something worth bringing back in 2018?
John Jenkins was active for eight game last season. He played at least 20% of the defensive snaps in six games, but overall finished with 109 defensive snaps in his season. Over that span Jenkins had eight tackles.
Stay
As far as a true nose tackle goes, the Chicago Bears depth chart reads as follows: Eddie Goldman. That is it. Rotational snaps this, and another player can do the small lifting that, what if Eddie Goldman gets hurt? Jenkins may be best suited to fill in that role. Rashaan Coward projects to be a potential nose tackle, but he spent all of last season on the practice squad. If the team is letting Jenkins walk, they have to actually go out and find a replacement or try to find an upgrade from his spot. It may just be better to keep a veteran depth defender.
Go
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With Jonathan Bullard and Roy Robertson-Harris coming into form, Mitch Unrein was asked to take some snaps at the nose last season. Unrein is a free agent this as well. However, when asking which of the two has been more valuable to the team, Unrein or Jenkins, the obvious answer is Unrein.
The fact of the matter is that the three replacement players could all rotate enough to fill in for Goldman if he is to go down. It is a deep and talented enough group. The Bears should be moving on from Jenkins, who hardly provided anything, and just hold onto the key defensive lineman.