We’ve reached the halfway point on our countdown of the 10 Chicago Bears with the most to prove in 2024. So far we’ve had three players from the defense and two from the offense.
Today’s player evens up the score 3 to 3 on the offensive and defensive side of the ball. That player is guard Nate Davis. To see how the first half of the countdown unfolded, you can click on any of the names below to see why their season is so critical.
10. Zacch Pickens
9. Braxton Jones
8. Gervon Dexter
7. Velus Jones
6. Tremaine Edmunds
If you asked Chicago Bears fans who their least favorite player on the team is, an overwhelming percentage would name Nate Davis. Davis sat out much of OTAs, training camp, and preseason due to a variety of issues, some of them personal and some of them health-related.
When Davis played early, he was dreadful. He took a couple of weeks off because of a personal issue, and when he returned, his play was solid. Unfortunately, that only lasted a couple of weeks before Davis went down with a high-ankle sprain. After Davis returned from the sprain, his performance suffered for the rest of the season.
To be fair to Davis, those personal issues he was dealing with during training camp and preseason was his mother who was deathly ill and died just as the season was starting. Everyone deals with grief differently, and I refuse to be one of those people that says, “Davis is being paid millions of dollars, it sucks that he lost his mother, but he needs to suck it up.”
As someone who lost his parents at a fairly young age (38 and 42), I certainly can’t imagine losing my mother when I was just 27. That loss could have played a significant role in Davis’ mental struggles. High-ankle sprains are also brutal for big guys, and it’s quite possible that Davis’ ankle was never quite right after that, and that’s why his play struggled in November and December.
I am not making excuses for Davis, I was the one who reported shortly after the signing how unpopular he was with then Tennesee Titans head coach Mike Vrabel. But if there was ever a year to give Davis a pass, it was 2023.
That being said, any of Davis’ issues from 2023 cannot linger into 2024. He has two years remaining on his contract and only one of them is guaranteed.
Davis needs to not only play better this year but prove that he’s reliable as well, something that he hasn’t done during the offseason program that’s already thrown a wrench into the Chicago Bears’ plans for the offensive line.
I had heard that the plan for this season was to have Ryan Bates start at center, and if Davis or Teven Jenkins missed time, Bates would slide over to guard and Coleman Shelton would play center.
That idea would make Shelton the top interior backup and utilize Bates’ versatility to Chicago’s advantage. The issue is that the Bears have a rookie quarterback in Caleb Williams and they want him to get a rapport with the center. They want Williams to have plenty of time to work with said center during training camp so they get a good feel for each other heading into the regular season.
The idea is a good one if Davis actually plays, but if Davis continues to sit out practices like he did last year and did during OTAs in 2024, Bates will constantly be over at guard and the center, by default, will end up being Shelton.
It’s probably no surprise that as minicamp was wrapping up, the Bears’ coaches said the interior of the offensive line was an open competition. Many took that on the idea that it’s anybody’s game between Bates and Shelton to become the center. I think, more likely, that was a shot at Davis with the idea that if he doesn’t become more reliable and play better then it could be Shelton at center and Bates at RG with Nate Davis on the bench.
Davis doesn’t need to just improve in 2024, he needs to play at least 14 or 15 games (he only played 11 last season and only played in the majority of the snaps in 9) and show that he’s a borderline Pro Bowl guard when he plays. If he has a season that’s only slightly better than 2023, Davis is going to be looking for a new team in 2025.
