USA Today
Bears Waive Mike Davis, activate Ryan Nall
In a move aimed at acquiring a fourth-round compensatory draft pick, the Bears waived running back Mike Davis.
Davis, a former Seahawk and 49er, during the offseason signed a $6 million free agent deal which included $2 million in guaranteed bonus money.
The plan announced by Bears coach Matt Nagy and general manager Ryan Pace before training camp was for a backfield-by-committee with shared duties between Davis, David Montgomery and Tarik Cohen.
Instead, Davis ran just 11 times for 25 yards, caught seven passes for 22 yards and Montgomery has 112 attempts and 18 receptions.
Davis was active in seven games and also played on special teams.
There will be no announcement now by the league about a compensatory draft pick for the Bears. Those come in the spring before the draft and the league is highly secretive about the formula used to determine the picks. However, based on past instances, the Bears would have been in line for such a pick based largely on losing safety Adrian Amos in free agency. If Davis had been on the roster past this week's game, then the Bears wouldn't have received the pick somewhere at the end of the fourth round.
The Bears haven't had a compensatory pick in the draft since 2009, which is largely a statement about how poorly they've drafted. They've had to constantly fill in their roster with free agents because picks failed.
To fill out the 53-man roster, the Bears have promoted running back Ryan Nall from the practice squad for the first time. Nall led them in rushing in 2018 preseason.
Also, the Bears waived tight end Bradley Sowell and replaced him on the 53-man roster with outside linebacker James Vaughters. Outside linebacker Isaiah Irving remains sidelined with a quad injury and Vaughters will fill in for him against the Lions.
The Bears could have chosen to activate 2019 seventh-round draft pick Kerrith Whyte Jr. from the practice squad instead of Nall. Whyte hasn't appeared yet in a regular-season game.
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