It was a lazy (and very early) morning after reviewing the recording of the Bears game. That is, until Brad Biggs at the Chicago Tribune popped this eye opener into his article this morning (the emphasis is mine):
“If [Josh] McCown can be plugged into [Bears head coach Marc] Trestman‘s system and perform like this, who’s to say the Bears won’t opt to bring him back and draft a player for the quarterback whisperer to get his hands on? It would likely be a much cheaper option than re-signing [injured starting quarterback Jay] Cutler.
“One general manager texted during halftime Monday night and predicted just that — the Bears will look to re-sign McCown and draft a quarterback.“
I suppose you always take what league sources say with a grain of salt because they all have their own motives for feeding quotes to the press. But this one strikes too close to home to be dismissed. This anonymous general manager is echoing what many, if not most, Bears fans are thinking.
Cutler has a lot of talent. But he has a lot of limitations and the Bears offense will always be limited with him at quarterback as well. As has been documented over and over again, the Bears will likely have to take a big cap hit to keep him once he hits the open market.
It won’t be Teddy Bridgewater but the Bears could reach for a mighty good late first round/early second round-type quarterback from where they’ll probably be drafting. And it looks like they’ve finally got the kind of coaching staff that could develop him. Indeed, why else would you choose to go in the direction of a quarterback-freindly offensive head coach in the first place?
No matter the motives behind the comment, the GM is right. The Bears have been setting themselves up in order to be capable of drafting and developing a quarterback from the moment Trestman was hired. Economically and strategically it makes a lot of sense and they could very well go in this direction.