Two Players with 218 Total Starts Released
Plenty of experience, and Pro Bowl experience at that, left Halas Hall Thursday as the Bears announced the release of veteran safety Eddie Jackson and guard Cody Whitehair.
The moves are aimed at salary cap savings and were widely anticipated. Whitehair had started 118 games and Jackson 100.
The two had been among the most costly players against the cap last year. Jackson's $17.09 million cap cost was second-highest behind only DJ Moore while Whitehair was fourth highest ($14.21 million), behind third-place Tremaine Edmunds ($14.69 million), according to Spotrac.com.
Jackson had been with the Bears since 2017 as a fourth-round pick from Alabama and Whitehair since 2016 as a second-round pick from Kansas State. Both had made the Pro Bowl, Whitehair as a center in 2018 and Jackson in 2018 and 2019. Jackson also was an All-Pro in 2018.
The moves now give both a chance to try to negotiate with another team before free agency negotiations begin March 11 and signings start March 13.
Cutting Jackson saves them about $12.56 million in cap space, according to Overthecap.com. They have $5.58 million in dead cap this year, then $1.59 million in dead cap space next year as a result of the release.
Whitehair's release saves the team $9.15 million and they have $4 million in dead cap for 2024 and $1.1 million in 2025, according to Overthecap.com.
During last season the Bears benched Whitehair, who will turn 32 in July. He went out Nov. 11 against Detroit then returned to start against Arizona due to an injury but sat out the game with Atlanta and played some due to injury as a backup against the Packers in the finale.
Whitehair made his lone Pro Bowl playing all of his 1,075 snaps at center in 2018 under coach Matt Nagy after being drafted in the second round out of Kansas State in 2016.
The Bears constantly were moving Whitehair back and forth between center and left guard. He even played 34 snaps this past season at right guard and 174 snaps there in 2017. But he was at left guard 3,444 plays and at center 3,927 plays for his career.
The Bears are expected to look for a center in free agency and possibly the draft, as well.
From looking at his Pro Football Focus blocking grades, it's easy to make the observation that the Bears made a mistake in the Ryan Pace-Matt Nagy era by moving Whitehair from center to guard.
Almost all of Whitehair's higher PFF blocking grades came while he played center. His high was 87.5 as a rookie in 2016 at center. He dipped a bit to 71.4 in his second year when he had to play 259 plays at guard and 705 at center, then went back up the next year to 75.2 at center for every snap in his Pro Bowl year as the Bears won the NFC North.
Whitehair split time the next two years between left guard and center and in the second half of 2020 became a guard full time. He never had a PFF blocking grade over 66.2 the last three years while playing almost entirely at guard.
The Bears had Lucas Patrick starting at center last year and Dan Feeney did it when Patrick was injured at season's end. Both Patrick and Feeney are free agents. The other Bears center is former Illinois center Doug Kramer, who was on the practice squad.
Jackson's release means the Bears will be in the free agent market for a starting safety. Third-year safety Elijah Hicks, a seventh-round draft pick, is the backup behind Jackson.
Jackson, 30, missed five games due to foot injuries each of the last two seasons. He hasn't played a full season since 2020.
In 2022, he made a comeback of sorts with four interceptions, the second-most of his career. He was among leaders in Pro Bowl balloting but then suffered the season-ending foot injury and this year had a foot injury in Week 2 that caused him to miss five total games.
Jackson leaves with six defensive touchdown returns, three on interceptions and three on fumbles. He had 15 career interceptions, 44 pass breakups, 10 forced fumbles and six fumble recoveries.
In 2022, Jackson lowered his passer rating against from a career-worst 143.6 to 66.4, third-best of his career according to Sportradar. However, this past season it ballooned up to 120.6 again. Sportradar tracked him at eight missed tackles in 45 attempts for 2023, a career-worst 17.8% missed tackle ratio.
The Bears could have close to $50 million in cap space after the moves.
They need to get a new contract to cornerback Jaylon Johnson before the March 13 free agent signing deadline. They could also put a franchise tag on him and it would cost approximately $18.8 million for 2024.
Both Whitehair and Jackson had been prepared for this sort of thing since the season was being played.
Jackson won the PFWA Chicago Chapter's Jeff Dickerson Good Guy Award this year near season's end and seemed resigned to his fate then.
“God always has a plan, so I feel like I’ll always land on my feet,” Jackson said at the time. “I hope it’s here. I know how it works in the business. I wish I could be here my whole entire career, but we know how this thing works."
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