The Chicago Bears had to do a little roster shuffling earlier this week ahead of the team’s Week 5 game against the Green Bay Packers and will have to make some more adjustments in the coming days with players working back from the PUP.

One move that surprised the Bears and allowed them to make some roster changes this week was the sudden retirement of veteran defensive end Marcus Davenport, who first asked for his release from the Bears’ practice squad.

The former first-round pick in the 2018 NFL Draft was in his ninth NFL season and was working his way back into playing shape with the Bears are injuries derailed the last few years of his career. Davenport was a standout player in New Orleans under Dennis Allen and overlapped with Ben Johnson during his time in Detroit. Reuniting with those two in Chicago seemed like an ideal environment for him to get back on his feet.

Instead, Davenport made the decision to walk away from the game and hang up the cleats after just one game with the Bears.

Ben Johnson reacts to Marcus Davenport’s sudden retirement

“It was a little bit out of left field,” Johnson told reporters on Wednesday when asked about Davenport’s retirement. “We really liked how he was attacking getting into football shape. Thought he did a great job there those first few weeks of taking advantage of padded practices and we thought he looked good. Our offensive linemen were talking about ‘Man, he’s got heavy hands and he’s strong’ and that’s kind of been my experience with him in the past and certainly DA’s as well. So, we were excited to see where it would go.”

Davenport’s strong showing in practice prompted the Bears to elevate him into the gameday roster off the practice squad last Sunday. He played 12 snaps defensively and had one tackle in his 78th career game. However, Davenport came up to the Bears on Monday after the game and requested his release, and later announced his retirement.

“We dipped our toe into the water there last week and if you’re not full steam ahead, then you can’t cheat your teammates or cheat the game,” Johnson added. “It’s just not worth it. He just felt like it was time to hang it up and we’re grateful he was honest and we’ll be going on to the next guy.”

The Bears filled Davenport’s position on the 16-man practice squad the following day after bringing back veteran wide receiver Scotty Miller and signing cornerback Elijah Jones, along with releasing cornerback De’Antre Prince.

More roster moves expected in the coming days on defense

Here in the next few days, the Bears will be making more roster changes on the defensive side of the ball. Cornerback Kyler Gordon, defensive lineman Shemar Turner, and linebacker Noah Sewell are all in their 21-day practice windows to return from the PUP list and are eligible to play starting this weekend against the Green Bay Packers.

First, they have to prove in practice this week that they’re in game shape and ready to return to action. If they can do that, the Bears would then have to activate them back to the 53-man roster. The Bears only have one open roster spot, so two corresponding moves would have to be made at some point to bring back all three defenders.

“We’ll let this thing play out,” Johnson said of those three specific players. “That’s been the thought throughout is let’s utilize the time we have and we were given and we’ll make a decision at the end of the week if one of those three are ready to go. We’ll see how it works out. We got a lot of things in flux right now with the roster and who’s going to be active here this week. We’ll make those decisions as we go.”

Those decisions will be determined based how those three look in practice this week and those decisions likely won’t be made officially made until Saturday.