It seems the Bears are cursed to always make bad QB decisions
Their history at the position being what it is, and the immediate future not looking good, the Chicago Bears seem cursed to always make bad quarterback decisions.
At the time, it was worth wondering why the Chicago Bears traded up one spot to take Mitch Trubusky second overall in the 2017 draft. Hindsight has not been kind to the move, with what Patrick Mahomes and Deshaun Watson have done thus far in their careers. Both were still on the board when the Bears took Trubisky.
The Bears are not the first team to miss on a quarterback high in the draft, and they won’t be anywhere near the last. But in the context of their history, with Bobby Douglass, Jim McMahon and Jay Cutler perhaps the best quarterbacks they’ve had, a more recent move is even more dismal.
This year’s free agent class, and the trade market, create a plethora of available options. The Bears increasingly seemed inclined to at least bring in legitimate competition for Trubisky, if not outright replace him if a run at Tom Brady was ever truly realistic.
As the quarterback musical chairs settled down, the options were drying up. Perhaps most notably for the Bears Brady landed with Tampa Bay and Philip Rivers went to Indianapolis, leaving a turn to the trade market. Andy Dalton worked with Bears’ offensive coordinator Bill Lazor in Cincinnati, so he was an easily rumored target.
Instead, the Bears acquired Nick Foles from the Jacksonville Jaguars for a fourth-round pick. A restructured contract allows Foles to opt out, but it’s hard to see him playing well enough to create that option and the Bears also took on his $15-million plus salary for this year.
Nick Foles already has restructred his contract with the Bears, per source. He still has three years left, still has $21 million guaranteed left, but Foles now has the ability to void the deal after either of the first two years depending on his performance. Deal includes upside.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) March 18, 2020
After the Carolina Panthers gave Cam Newton permission to seek a trade last week, they released him on Tuesday. So all the Bears would have had to do was wait for that to happen, and rather than trade any assets for the 2015 league MVP they could have signed to a low or no-risk deal contingent on him passing a physical.
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Even considering acquiring Foles was a clear referendum on Trubisky, and the Bears went ahead and did it. Waiting is often the hardest part (as Tom Petty told us), but the Bears are clearly cursed to make the wrong decision at quarterback. Even if they had waited for Newton to be freely available, it’s impossible to assume it would’ve turned out well.