Two thoughts about these Bears:
First, this might be the worst Bears team I’ve seen.
Yes, there have been other bad ones, such as the 1969 team that went 1-13. But they had Gale Sayers and Dick Butkus, excitement on either side of the ball.
The 2016 Bears were 3-13, and, yes, they were terrible. Nothing to see there unless Brian Hoyer got you worked up. A possible contender.
But no Bears team had lost 14 games in a season until this one. (Yes, there’s a 17-game schedule, but never mind that.) And none had lost 10 in a row until this one.
Second, Bears quarterbacks are to passing as stone masons are to neurosurgery. They are dangerously inept. Traditionally, culturally, historically, they can’t throw the football in a passing system.
As I’ve mentioned, this is something that couldn’t happen by accident. Statistically, it’s virtually impossible. Bad passing is to the Bears as stink is to skunks. It’s what they are, what makes them them.
We could get into the why, but I’d rather not. It’s like descending into a sewer system with a toothbrush.
Consider that Erik Kramer is still the Bears’ single-season leader in passing yardage with 3,838. He did that in 1995.
Just this season, nine NFL quarterbacks had more yards than that in the first 16 games. Want to know whom? Patrick Mahomes, Tom Brady, Kirk Cousins, Jared Goff, Geno Smith, Justin Herbert, Joe Burrow, Josh Allen and Trevor Lawrence.
The cold-weather excuse?
Tell it to Aaron Rodgers or, before him, Brett Favre. Between them, the two Packers quarterbacks have had 20 seasons with more passing yardage than any Bears quarterback. It gets cold in Green Bay, too, eh?
Passing offense happens everywhere but in Chicago — even in Buffalo. (We’ll ignore the uniquely pitiful Browns for the moment. Only God can fix that franchise.)
No, it’s a dilemma. A Bears thing. And even with Justin Fields resting up, getting ready for all the supposed talent general manager Ryan Poles is going to throw at him after the coming draft, you have to figure Bears-ness will drag Fields down.
It hurts to bring this up, but it’s a pattern. It’s a curse, like that 108-year thing that kept the Cubs down until 2016.
The Bears’ offense seems older than club matriarch Virginia McCaskey, who turned 100 on Thursday. And, remember, in 1923, the Bears finished 9-2-1, behind only the champion Canton Bulldogs.
It’s hard to imagine a Bears quarterback throwing for 4,000 yards. It would be almost a breach of contract. Like a sin, needing penance.
And yet 4,000 yards is a sort of benchmark for good quarterback play. Since Joe Namath first did it in 1967, it has been achieved by more than 50 quarterbacks.
This season, Mahomes had 5,250 yards passing. Peyton Manning, Drew Brees, Ben Roethlisberger, Jameis Winston, Dan Marino, Matthew Stafford, Brady and Herbert all have thrown for more than 5,000 yards.
You could say, yeah, those are good quarterbacks. A skeptic could say that if they had come to the Bears they would be average. Or hurt. Or something blah.
The point here is now-fired coach Lovie Smith and his Texans gave the Bears a ridiculous gift by beating the Colts on Sunday: the first pick in the 2023 draft. There are good quarterbacks out there. C.J. Stroud, Bryce Young, Hendon Hooker, Max Duggan — one or more is going to be a passing star in the NFL.
Are the Bears set at quarterback? Fields threw for a measly 2,242 yards this season, backup numbers. Forget that he ran for more than 1,000 yards. He’ll get badly injured if he keeps that up. Everybody talks about his potential, but quarterbacks have to pass the ball. They must. And do it well.
The Bears likely will trade that coveted No. 1 draft pick to a team that desperately needs a quarterback and has determined which kid in the draft is the bell cow, the zenith. It’s likely the Bears could determine whom that is, too. But they once thought it was Jay Cutler in a trade and Mitch Trubisky in the draft. So why trust them now?
So Fields it is.
And if you wonder whether, even with talent all around him, Fields can pass the Bears into modern times, stay alert. Because unless he can, we’ll keep sitting around the campfire, talking about olden days, recalling the flying wedge, Bronko Nagurski and clods of dirt.
