For as bad as this season had been, the Chicago Bears are still more in need of a retool than a full-on rebuild. They have some pieces that will help them compete, but have grossly misevaluated and mishandled others. Independent of who should be charged with carrying out making them, changes are needed on every level of the roster.
Bears in Need of Retooling, Not Rebuilding
Why not, then, take advantage of the remaining weeks of the season to go through each position group and identify who should be around when the 2020 season kicks off. It is more prudent to assess what has gone wrong and, to a lesser extent, place blame. But all that does is lead us to find solutions.
That process is where this series comes in. It doesn’t matter who is most to blame for this, just who can help turn the franchise’s fortunes around for real. Of course, that means we must begin with the quarterback position. It may be low-hanging fruit but such is the nature of the beast in football. Quarterback is the game’s most important position.
Present Company Excluded
Odds are that Mitchell Trubisky is back with the Bears in 2020. What isn’t so certain is in what capacity. The Bears would be foolish not to have an open competition for the starting job next summer. Even if they go into camp with Mitch as the starter (a major mistake) they at least have to upgrade the rest of the group to provide better insurance and competition.
Backup quarterback Chase Daniel is overpriced for what he brings to the team but his time hasn’t been without value. Yes, the Bears have gone 1-2 in Daniel’s starts (they also beat the Minnesota Vikings in Week 4 when he played the majority of the game). But he has also shown why he is a backup with costly turnovers contributing heavily to both losses.
With Daniel starting or playing the majority in the games he did, we saw this offense is not dependent on even stellar play from the quarterback position to be effective. That has just compounded the frustration over Trubisky’s lack of progress. If the Bears were getting even slightly above backup-level play the season might look drastically different.
Chicago is not getting that though and so must go about identifying the best practices and players to change that. So who is expected to be available and who is worth pursuing if you’re general manager Ryan Pace and likely, in a sense, drafting for your job? It is important to remember the type of passer Pace thought Trubisky was.
The Outsiders
The list of anticipated available quarterbacks is chock full of name recognition but the names at the top are more fodder than actual possibilities. Tom Brady, Drew Brees, and Philip Rivers are Hall of Famers that could hit the market. They are better than Trubisky but could, and should, be looking for better situations (and money) than the Bears should offer them.
Brady could be eyeing the San Francisco 49ers if Jimmy Garoppolo ends up being their downfall or even replacing Rivers, though that’s less likely. Rivers is the most turnover-prone of the three and his brashness wouldn’t play well in Chicago if the team is losing. Brees, like Brady has thrived within a system (though he at least had some success in another with San Diego) and could be hard-pressed to replicate that success elsewhere.
The next group of veterans includes two Super Bowl passers in Cam Newton and Nick Foles. Both are under contract for 2020 but differing circumstances saw speculation of them in different uniforms. Well both of their fill-ins, Kyle Allen and Gardner Minshew, showed their teams may not want to jettison their veteran incumbents. Foles reclaimed his starting spot and Newton may have as well were he not on IR.
Other names like Andy Dalton, Ryan Tannehill, and Marcus Mariota should get nothing more than a cursory look. They have done nothing to suggest they can elevate a team. Jameis Winston has been lauded as a leader (go figure) on the field but his proclivity for turnovers is a major obstacle. Tyrod Taylor, at his best, has been a stop-gap and not a franchise quarterback. Eli Manning lost his job to Geno Smith last year.
Just Right
The lone remaining viable starting option is New Orleans Saints backup Teddy Bridgewater. The former Vikings first-round pick filled in beyond admirably for an injured Brees. He went 5-0, a streak that included both close games as well as shootouts. while completing over 69 percent of his passes with nine touchdowns and two interceptions.
Why does Brees get knocked for his attachment to Sean Payton and the Saints and Bridgewater doesn’t? First, the knock against Brees isn’t a deal-breaker, just a noteworthy footnote. Second, Bridgewater is 13 years Brees’ junior and, thus, more likely to be malleable. He also went 11-5 in his final full year as a starter with the Vikings.
Brees will undoubtedly play a large role in Bridgewater’s future. If the former calls it a career after this campaign it would make sense for the latter to return to such a solid infrastructure. Saints general manager Mickey Loomis took a chance on the former Louisville Cardinal following a career-threatening injury. Both sides could see the value of staying together.
Bridgewater checks so many of the boxes the Bears are looking for in their starting quarterback. He is in his prime, smart, accurate, and mobile enough while not being a true scrambler. Pace and company need to view the Saints as the only threat to keep them from Bridgewater. Since the Bears can get to around $37 million in cap room without too much effort, Bridgewater must be in navy and burnt orange come 2020.
But Wait, There’s More
Signing Bridgewater shouldn’t preclude the Bears from taking a quarterback. For all the props given to Bridgewater, he is not without risk. As was former Green Bay Packers general manager, Ron Wolf’s philosophy, teams should take a quarterback every year to develop. It’s a process that has paid off in a multitude of ways over the years.
The most famous instance is Russell Wilson in Seattle. They were fresh off of signing former Packer Matt Flynn to a lucrative deal when they took Wilson in the third round in 2012. Another, more established example is Brady and the New England Patriots. Brade is a Hall of Famer and the team still took Garoppolo (62nd) and Jacoby Brissett (91st).
LSU’s Joe Burrow, Oregon’s Justin Herbert, and Alabama’s Tua Tagovailoa will all be gone by the time the Bears pick. They have two second-round picks so trading up isn’t out of the question but the brain-trust might be more than gun-shy about doing so. Names like Jacob Eason and Jake Fromm are enticing options in the late-first or early second rounds.
At worst the Bears would be improving the talent quarterback room; Daniel and Tyler Bray don’t inspire a lot of confidence. At best they find their true franchise quarterback, but the middle is what is intriguing. It would mean they have their franchise passer and could move the one they drafted down the road for picks a la Bill Belichick.
We’ve Only Just Begun
Some argue that the Bears issues run deeper than Trubisky. Wilson and Watson make that argument less effective. Good quarterbacks can mask several deficiencies for their team. Nevertheless, this is just the first installation of what will be a position by position breakdown of how the Bears can retool, not rebuild, this Bears team.
Main Photo:
Embed from Getty Images
