NEWSLETTER
The Chicago Bears could soon make more room on their wide receiver depth chart, by officially parting ways with Markus Wheaton:
Nothing official at this point but WR Markus Wheaton, who has a $5 million base salary for 2018, is expecting to be released by #Bears. There is no trigger date with money but move could come after Allen Robinson & Taylor Gabriel officially sign contracts/pass physicals.
— Brad Biggs (@BradBiggs) March 14, 2018
That sounds like early stages of the inevitable.
Indeed, Chicago could clear an estimated $5 million in cap room when they part ways with Wheaton, and Wheaton is expecting them to do just that. This isn’t what the team (or player, for that matter) had in mind when he signed a two-year deal as a free agent around this time last year – the hope, of course, was that he could re-create the magic he once had with the Pittsburgh Steeler – but it’s what we got.
Indeed, that magic never materialized in Chicago and success proved to be especially difficult for Wheaton without Ben Roethlisberger throwing him the ball and Antonio Brown lining up on the other side of the field.
As a complimentary receiver, Wheaton was often used to stretch the field vertically on the outside and work the deep middle of the field. Although, that, too, proved to be a difficult task, in part, due to the injuries that limited him to just 187 snaps in 2017. In the end, Wheaton was targeted just 17 times last season, and came away with just three catches and 51 receiving yards in 11 games.
No Bears player had worse injury luck than Wheaton, whose year included an appendectomy, a broken finger, and a groin tear, and now his career might soon be turning a new page.
