The day after beating the Cleveland Browns in their preseason opener, the Chicago Bears were back to work. Some of the news was great, some was bad, but one was noteworthy for the team: veteran free agent defensive end Marcus Davenport paid a visit to Halas Hall.
Davenport is a former first-round pick of the New Orleans Saints, where he overlapped with Bears defensive coordinator Dennis Allen for the first five seasons of his career (2018-2022). In 2021, Davenport had a career-high nine sacks and nine tackles for loss playing under Allen.
Davenport also has a bit of history with Bears head coach Ben Johnson and coaches he brought from the Detroit Lions (Antwaan Randle El, J.T. Barrett). Davenport spent the last two seasons in Detroit, overlapping the first of them with those current Bears coaches.
Davenport has also played only 14 games over the last three seasons, going back to 2023 with the Minnesota Vikings, including just two games in 2024 when Johnson, etc. were in close proximity to him. He has played more than 500 defensive snaps once in eight NFL seasons. But don't dare try telling him he isn't durable; his recent resume says it all, and playing eight games last season stands out as it does.
Marcus Davenport seems like the kind of player who would drive Ben Johnson crazy
Johnson has been open and concise with his frustration about cornerback Kyler Gordon's ongoing injury absence. While coaches are often frustrated in that kind of situation, Johnson's frustration with Gordon has been palpably different.
The Bears can certainly use all the edge rusher/pass rush help they can find, though, and Davenport undeniably has had his best season(s) of his career in Allen's defense.
But when Davenport last played double-digit games or more than 281 defensive snaps in a season, 2022 with the Saints, he had just half a sack in 15 games. Now approaching his 30th birthday (Sept. 4) along with his recent lack of ability to stay on the field, it's safe to say he's more depleted physically now than he was then.
To be fair, the arm injury that cost Davenport most of the 2024 season with the Lions was a fluke thing caused by a fairly dirty chop move by Arizona Cardinals offensive tackle Paris Johnson. But he had already missed a game early that season with a soft tissue injury, and who's to say he wouldn't have missed noticeable time over the course of that season anyway?
Davenport's visit to the Bears may have partly been a simple check-in to see how healthy he is. If he is good to go, then they can more comfortably add him to their list of options if they need to sign an edge rusher.
If he were brought aboard, it's just hard to see Davenport making the difference the Bears would need him to.
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It's even harder to see Johnson having much tolerance for any kind of lingering, somewhat mysterious, injury absence that isn't a clear season-ender (like a torn triceps), and Davenport has had one of those in two of the last three seasons.
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