It seems no matter what Chicago Bears fans do, they can’t seem to escape the Russell Wilson discussion. Haven’t they suffered enough? Several decades of mostly inferior quarterback play. Their greatest rival employing back-to-back first-ballot Hall of Famers. Multiple close calls with eventual superstars. Now they have a seven-time Pro Bowler dangled in front of their faces. Are the football gods enjoying this torture?
That certainly appears to be the case because the subject refuses to die. Even as the calendar turns to April and all signs point to Wilson staying in Seattle, multiple insiders continue to insist a trade is still very much in play. The latest came from Chris Mortensen of ESPN. Understand that he never reports information unless he knows it’s solid. So when he said on a SportsCenter Special covering Todd McShay’s latest mock draft that Wilson to the Bears is “not totally off the board,” it was noteworthy, to say the least.
This backs up information that has trickled out for the past couple of weeks.
The running belief is that things aren’t good between Wilson and the Seahawks brass. He’s not happy up there. The quarterback has chaffed under the old school offensive approach of Pete Carroll for years. He’s also taken a lot of hits already in his career, much of it due to Seattle’s bargain shopper approach to the offensive line. Everybody seems to think the same thing. It’s not a matter of if Wilson leaves, but when.
For the Bears, the challenge is finding the right package that’ll make the Seahawks say yes. Adam Schefter and others said the primary reason they declined last month was Chicago couldn’t offer them a viable alternative at quarterback. Carroll has no interest in a rebuild. So it came down to whether the Seahawks might find somebody in the draft they like. That or perhaps have a shot at trading for New York Jets starter Sam Darnold whom Caroll is a big fan of.
All signs have pointed to the draft as zero hour.
If a trade is going to happen for Russell Wilson, it’ll be then. If Mortensen insists the trade isn’t dead yet, that’s about as credible as it gets. SM has heard the door wasn’t closed but this would seem to indicate the Bears brass are of the belief they have a legitimate shot to make it happen. It’s a question of timing and finding the right package.
Russell Wilson might be the only one who can save jobs
Recently I reported that things are looking somewhat bleak for GM Ryan Pace and head coach Matt Nagy going into 2021. Right now Andy Dalton is their primary plan at quarterback and the roster doesn’t appear to have improved at all around him. The odds of them actually posting a better record than last year against the third-toughest schedule in the NFL feels remote. Worse still, George McCaskey has made it known behind closed doors they won’t be getting a free pass if they happen to draft a quarterback early.
The expectation this year is to win. In the minds of ownership, this team is better than the 8-8 record it’s posted the past two years. It falls to the two men at the top to get more out of it than they have. The one constant holding it back has been the quarterback. Mitch Trubisky was a bust. Nick Foles couldn’t help. Dalton might be a slight improvement but is he really going to move the needle?
Certainly not to the level Wilson could.
He would be a game-changer. Somebody who could elevate the entire offense around him. His skill set is a perfect fit for what Nagy wants to do on offense. Namely, throw the ball a lot and throw it down the field. How much better would Allen Robinson and Darnell Mooney be with him under center? It would be far hard to envision the Bears not making the playoffs if they somehow got him. This is why it’s fair to believe Pace and Nagy are fully prepared to make another run at Wilson later this month.