Marcus Davenport has found a new home. The Chicago Bears are signing the former New Orleans Saints draft pick in a reunion with his old coach Dennis Allen, per Matt Zentiz for CBS Sports. Allen was the Saints' defensive coordinator when they made an ill-advised trade in the first round of the 2018 NFL Draft to go get Davenport and continued to coach him for the first five years of his career. Davenport left the Saints in 2023 to try his hand with the Minnesota Vikings before staying in the NFC North the last two years on the Detroit Lions. Now he'll have signed with three of the division's four teams.
Davenport's biggest challenge remains staying healthy. He never played in more than 13 games before the NFL expanded its regular season in 2021. He dressed for a career-high 15 games with the Saints in 2022 but was limited to four games with the Vikings in 2023, just two games in Detroit in 2024, and eight games in 2025. All told he's suited up for 77 of 133 possible games, logging just 43 starts. We'll see if he's in the lineup when the Saints make a midseason road trip to Chicago in November.
This article originally appeared on Saints Wire: Former Saints first-round pick reunites with Bears DC Dennis Allen