I probably should have finished the post title with an exclamation point rather than a question mark, since this was never really a question. This was one of the givens. Manning has been practicing with the third team and rarely has seen meaningful game time.
Per this report, sometime prior to this offseason Manning asked to be traded or released, but was denied by the Bears organazation.
"I would have preferred a trade," he said Monday. "My agent asked them to at least seek a trade if I wasn't going to be part of the plans.
"Not being a part of their plans, that's fine with me. If that's the mistake they want to make, hey, so be it."
As it turns out the Bears did make some injuries (based on an unnamed NFL source) for a trade partner, but found no takers. Manning is scheduled to make an estimated 8 million over the next two years (4.75 next season), so the likely hood of him staying was probably never high unless they renegotiated the deal, but just south of 3 million this season for a guy that is third on the depth chart isn't something the Bears can do. He is expected to be released during this round of cuts when the Bears have to get down to 53 players by Saturday.
Ricky Manning Jr. made himself a ton of money based off of a big playoff performance with the Panthers if my memory serves me, but he is one of those guys that looks good coming to a new team and probably makes a few plays, but in the end he just isn't a permanent answer.