Dan Wiederer at the Chicago Tribune passes on comments from Bears general manager Ryan Pace indicating that he will likely take a quarterback in the NFL draft in five weeks. He’s not ruling out Marcus Mariota in the first round:
“And not only that, if Pace does make such a move five weeks from now, it likely won’t be the last time he takes a draft-weekend swing at the position.
“Said Pace: ‘I think it’s a good idea to add a quarterback every year.'”
“‘It’s a critical position,’ Pace said. ‘Because of that you can take a swing every year at it. Increase your odds.'”
I, like all of the other fans in Chicago, have heard this statement now from Jerry Angelo, Phil Emery and now Pace. So you’ll excuse me if I’m a bit skeptical. I’ve little doubt that Pace will take a quarterback this year. But beyond that past experience tells me that other team needs have a bad habit of taking precedence and before you know it, its the sixth round and you’re looking at taking yet another guy who ha virtually no shat at being anything other than a back up.
The other thing to point out – and I believe this is more important – is that just taking a quarterback isn’t enough. It’s far more critical (and more difficult) to develop one. Getting the right quarterback coach is crucial to the future success at the position and, therefore, of the franchise. Whether current quarterbacks coach Dowell Loggains is the right guy for the job is, at minimum, an open question. But regardless perhaps the Bears should consider adding a new coach who knows something about quarterbacks until they get that position right, too.