Should Chicago Bears tank for Trevor Lawrence or sign Cam Newton in 2021?
By John Buhler
Who should lead the Chicago Bears in 2021: Trevor Lawrence or Cam Newton?
The 2020 Chicago Bears are a team with a great amount of variance for the upcoming season. If it all goes well, perhaps the Bears can win double-digit games and claim an NFC North crown for the second time in three years? Should it hit the fan, Chicago could be one of the worst teams in the NFC, dwelling in the cellar with the likes of the Carolina Panthers and the New York Giants.
The reason the Bears offer this much variance is entirely on quarterback play. The only thing Mitchell Trubisky is the answer to is the player Ryan Pace traded up from No. 3 to No. 2 to draft over Patrick Mahomes and Deshaun Watson back in the 2017 NFL Draft. If you think journeyman Nick Foles will be exponentially better than him, are you familiar with Jacksonville Jaguars football?
Because of a strong defense led by coordinator Chuck Pagano, the Bears were able to finish at .500 and narrowly miss out on the NFC playoffs. However, they are led by an offensive-minded head coach in Matt Nagy, who has been mostly smoke and mirrors in his time with the Bears. If Chicago goes 5-11, the dysfunctional Bears organization just might fire the poor guy.
So what are the Bears to do this year? Well, if they want to win and chase the Green Bay Packers and Minnesota Vikings in the division, then starting Foles Week 1 is the only option. Rolling with Trubisky for another year only ensures the team of not getting the most out of its potential. Even if starting Foles over Trubisky happens, there are no guarantees the Bears will be good anyway.
What if the Bears tank for Trevor Lawrence?
For this outcome to be a reality, we have to first envision it being a distinct possibility. If the Bears want to prematurely throw away their 2020 campaign with the hopes of drafting the Clemson Tigers quarterback, be our guest. Yes, he undoubtedly is worth cratering an entire season over. He’s the best quarterbacking prospect since John Elway left Stanford in 1983. He’s that good.
Could the Bears be one of the handful of teams who could compete in the Trevor Lawrence sweepstakes? They were a middle of the pack team last year. If they drop a few more games and get into the top 10, Chicago could put together a Godfather offer to move up to No. 1 and select star collegiate signal-caller out of Clemson. He’s going No. 1 overall, but will it be to the Bears?
Truthfully, the Bears will need to be about as bad as the division rival Detroit Lions were a season ago for this to even happen. Detroit was briefly a competitive team before franchise quarterback Matthew Stafford suffered a season-ending injury. The Lions were talented enough to win seven games and won half as many, ending up with the No. 3 spot in the 2020 NFL Draft.
Unfortunately, how sure are we the Bears organization will keep Pace or even Nagy if this 2020 team is a sad, sad bunch that only goes 4-12? Seemingly the world has run out of patience with Pace as the Bears general manager. If frustrations boil over, it might end up costing Nagy’s job, too. Simply put, tanking for Lawrence doesn’t ensure Pace or Nagy will be the ones picking him.
Even if it is a top-down initiative to get in better position to draft Lawrence, is just flat-out impossible to tank in the NFL. The players don’t want bad tape on their resume. If you don’t play hard in football, you end up getting hurt. We thought we had a certain tank job last year in the Miami Dolphins. Instead, they went 5-11 and ended up with the No. 5 overall pick this spring.