These Trends Explain Why The Chicago Bears Are So Awful Drafting QBs

It's been a serious problem for decades. While other franchises have adapted to the reality of modern football, the Chicago Bears continue to lag behind. Why, oh why can't this team successfully draft quarterbacks? It's certainly not for lack of trying. Since the Super Bowl era began in 1966, the organization has selected 30 quarterbacks. Yet only one of them managed to make a single Pro Bowl. This has forced them to live off the discarded remains of other teams or pay through the nose to get ones that are any good via trade. It hasn't worked. Now the team is coming off its most abysmal season in years. A 3-13 debacle filled with rampant injuries and questions of whether this team will ever get the QB position right. In order to answer that question, it's important to understand where they've gone wrong. Plenty of mistakes have been made in the past, but there are two trends to their drafting that have stuck out the most. Suffice to say they clearly haven't learned their lessons, and until they do good fortune isn't likely to come. [video width="854" height="480" mp4="https://www.sportsmockery.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Ben-Roethlisbergers-Clutch-Performance-Ravens-vs.-Steelers-NFL-Week-16-Player-Highlights.mp4"][/video]

Size Matters

One of the things about the quarterback position is that it evolves with the league itself. As defenses adapt to stop them, the style of quarterback must also adapt. One development that has become a must over the past couple decades is the desire for more size. Offensive lineman have grown a lot in the past 50 years. Back then they were 6'3" and barely weighed 250 lbs. Now they hover around 6'5", 310 lbs. That's quite the Super Mario mushroom-style growth spurt. A key facet that is always overlooked but vital to a quarterback is vision. The better they can see the field, the easier it is to make throws. Shorter ones tend to have their vision obstructed. Usually the going belief among most draft experts today is a QB should be at least 6'3" and preferably 6'4" or taller. They say it's a game of inches and they weren't joking. Here is the standing height of the four quarterbacks remaining the NFL playoffs.

• Ben Roethlisberger:  6'5"
• Matt Ryan:  6'5"
• Tom Brady:  6'4"
• Aaron Rodgers:  6'2"

Only Rodgers falls below the minimum line, and it's not by much. He also gets away with it because of his exceptional mobility. This is where the Bears have failed repeatedly in previous years. Not only do they pick small, but they pick relatively immobile too. Here is every first round pick they've made in the Super Bowl era and what their height was.

• Rex Grossman:  6'1"
• Cade McNown:  6'1"
• Jim Harbaugh:  6'3"
• Jim McMahon:  6'1"

Harbaugh met the bare minimum requirement of height. The others were considerably below it. McMahon was the most successful of the bunch and that was because he could run. Yet even he had a fatal flaw that shorter quarterbacks tend to share: durability issues. They have a difficult time staying healthy and the Bears proved that. McMahon played more than nine games in a season just twice in seven years with Chicago. McNown suffered a shoulder injury in addition to being terrible and Grossman had a myriad of health problems as well. There are exceptions to the size rule such as Russell Wilson and Drew Brees among others. However,  the trend of "bigger is better" has been the case for a long time in the NFL. In fact of the 10 quarterbacks who have won a Super Bowl since 2000, just three of them stood under 6'4". https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpSjla0e3Wc

Late To The Party

Another mistake the franchise has made over the years in regards to their quarterback drafting methods was waiting too long. No, not waiting until later rounds. Waiting until later in the first round. There is actually a common trend people haven't noticed about the most successful QBs the Bears have drafted over the years. They were either the first or second off the board.

• 1939:  Sid Luckman (first off board)
• 1946:  Johnny Lujack (second off board)
• 1985:  Jim McMahon (second off board)

One also could've included Bobby Layne in that mix, whom they drafted in 1948. The future Hall of Famer was later traded. He was the second quarterback taken that year. As for the remaining Bears first round picks, most of whom were busts, they all had the same thing in common. Being leftovers.

• 1987:  Jim Harbaugh (fourth off board)
• 1999:  Cade McNown (fifth off board)
• 2003:  Rex Grossman (third off board)

On average, an NFL draft produces two Pro Bowl quarterbacks in their entirety. That means the odds are fairly good that at least one of them will be gone in one of those first two selected. That drastically drops the odds that the team picking the third, fourth or fifth quarterback will be lucky enough to get the other. Big shocker the Bears haven't hit that lottery ticket yet.