3 surprise cuts the Bears can make this offseason

Injuries and David Montgomery’s emergence have made Tarik Cohen expendable

Back in 2018, Tarik Cohen was an All-Pro running back for the Bears. Three seasons later, he has played in precisely 19 games for them out of a possibly 49. Cohen missed all of last year due to injury and only played in three games for the Bears two seasons ago. He is on the books for two more years in Chicago, accounting for 2.74 percent of the 2022 salary cap at $5.75 million.

Cohen has a dead cap hit of $3.5 million, but that number would go down to $1.75 million after June 1. Either way, the Bears could save anywhere between roughly $2.3 million and $4 million if they parted ways with Cohen prematurely. Keep in mind that the new front office and coaching staff do not have any attachments to him. Plus, the Bears have seen David Montgomery shine.

While Cohen’s receiving skills out of the backfield coming out of North Carolina A&T helped set him apart, it has been a minute since he got to display them in an NFL game. Since running back is a position that does not age well, the Bears could get out ahead of this and cut Cohen to free up a few million dollars to help set them up for success under a new front office and coaching staff.

The Bears would stand to free up the most amount of cap space of these three by cutting Cohen.