Should Chicago Bears tank for Trevor Lawrence or sign Cam Newton in 2021?
By John Buhler
What if the Bears sign Cam Newton as a free agent in 2021?
If the Bears aren’t in position to win the Lawrence draft sweepstakes, possibly by winning a few more games than required to be a truly terrible team, they may enter the free agency market. While any number of quarterbacks could be available, a good fit for them schematically could be former Carolina Panthers starter Cam Newton. Would he be worth it, though?
Theoretically, he could be a high-end stop-gap starter for Nagy in 2021 or 2022. By that point, the Bears could have a better feel on 2022 NFL Draft eligible quarterback prospects like Sam Howell of the North Carolina Tar Heels, Kedon Slovis of the USC Trojans or Jayden Daniels of the Arizona State Sun Devils. Again, all have promise, but it’s too far out to project their talents just yet.
Depending on where Newton plays football this fall, because let’s be real, he’s too talented to not sign with a team before the start of the season, he might be in position to re-enter the free agency market after a one-and-done stint with another NFL franchise. It just won’t be with the Panthers or the Bears.
See, this is the biggest issue here. The Bears could have had Newton if they displayed any semblance of patience whatsoever. Trading for Foles’ bad contract when better quarterbacks like Newton, Andy Dalton and arguably Jameis Winston could have been had is yet another reason no one trusts what Pace does in the war room. It’s screwy and it’s always been screwy.
By waiting an additional year to sign Newton as a free agent in 2021, all that signifies to the league is the Bears are a hopeless dysfunctional mess. You literally wasted an entire year of your fanbase’s lives by fiddle-farting around by signing Newton a year too late. Who knows what the morale of the team or the state of the franchise will be by this time next year?