The Chicago Bears quarterback position has been a subject of study for years. Experts everywhere can't fathom how an organization that has been around so long and won so much could be this consistently bad at finding good players at the sport's most important position. Many chalk it up to the team having the worst luck imaginable. There have been several instances where they were on the cusp of landing a true difference-maker before fate intervened. They lost the coin toss for Terry Bradshaw, saw Kurt Warner fail to show up for a workout because of a spider bite, won a game too many for Peyton Manning, and took their swing a year too early before Eli Manning, Philip Rivers, Ben Roethlisberger, and Aaron Rodgers all arrived.
In truth, that is merely a poor excuse. The Bears must own their mistakes in this decades-long tragedy. Tyler Dunne of Go Long tried to understand what led to this endless torment. In doing so, he contacted somebody who had been a Bears executive for years. He broke it down into three primary reasons.
The best way one longtime Bears exec can explain the team’s issues? Think of it in thirds.
All 33.3-percent factors prove equally deadly.
Bad personnel evaluation.
Organizational dysfunction.
Suffocating pressure of the market.
“It is f--king hard to play in this city at that position because as soon as you play two or three bad games, you’re the worst mother--ker on the planet and it comes down heavy,” this former Bears exec says. “I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the New York Jets and the Chicago Bears are the two teams that have a hardest time finding quarterbacks because you better have the guy who’s wired right. And talented.”
It sounds too simple, but in reality, the assessment is dead on. Look at the most notable quarterbacks to join the Bears during the Super Bowl era. Every one of them who failed falls into at least one of those categories.
Bad evaluation:
- Rex Grossman
- Rick Mirer
- Bobby Douglass
Organizational dysfunction:
- Justin Fields
- Nick Foles
- Jay Cutler
- Jim Harbaugh
Market pressure:
- Mitch Trubisky
- Cade McNown
The Chicago Bears may have finally got it right with Caleb Williams.
Start with the evaluation. For months, most draft experts have said that he was the best quarterback in the 2024 class. He's drawing comparisons to Patrick Mahomes, Aaron Rodgers, and Donovan McNabb. He has arm strength, accuracy, mobility, and outstanding improvisational skills. Next is organizational dysfunction. All signs point to this current regime being one of the steadiest seen in a long time. GM Ryan Poles has firm control of the build, with everybody on the same page. There are no indications that head coach Matt Eberflus is on the hot seat. The team improved last year. Everybody is buying into his teachings.
Lastly, there is the market pressure. Williams has been in the spotlight since high school. He played at Oklahoma and USC, two blue-blood programs with massive media profiles and tons of pressure to win. Under those conditions, he won the Heisman trophy and reached three consecutive bowl games. Nobody can say the Chicago Bears didn't do all the right things this time around. They got a talented young man, surrounded him with a stable infrastructure, and made sure he was wired the right way to handle the intense demands of Chicago.
All anybody can do now is wait and see.
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