Teven Jenkins, Offensive Line
While age and injury might have slowed Whitehair down, a brittle body is hurting Teven Jenkins' career. He is a talented player who was projected to be a first round pick in 2021. Injury concerns led to him dropping into the second round, though.
Those concerns were valid. During training camp in his rookie season, Jenkins required back surgery. That wiped out nearly his entire season. He played just six games that season.
Injuries became a running theme of Jenkins' career. In 2022, he missed four games and in 2023 he missed five games due to a number of injuries.
While Jenkins is a talented player, that talent does nothing when he is sidelined by an injury. Before the 2023 season, he spoke about a new conditioning program that was set up to help him stay healthy. He started out the season on injured reserve. For some reason, he just cannot seem to stay healthy.
Perhaps another team takes a chance on Jenkins and tries to find the key for him to stay healthy. It just has not worked in Chicago. The Bears could trade him and get a draft pick in return. Moreover, the team saves about $1.8 million.
With these cuts, the Chicago Bears add about $36.1 million in additional salary cap space. That would put them at about $83 million in available money. At the moment, the Washington Commanders have the most cap space at about $73.6 million. Chicago would once again be near the top in cap space and have the flexibility to go after whoever they want in free agency.
Knowing what Poles has done up to this point, he won't be spending freely. He is careful with his money. He will certainly make $83 million go a long way.