Two big-name quarterbacks are off the board. Matthew Stafford heads off to Los Angeles. Now Carson Wentz is bound for Indianapolis. The Chicago Bears? They continue to bide their time, waiting for the right opportunity to pounce. All the while fans grow more nervous by the day, seeing the pool of options shrink. What is GM Ryan Pace going to do?
Nobody knows. Everybody claims to but they really do. No GM in the league is better at masking his intentions during the offseason than Pace. All anybody can do is speculate. One person with ties to the team is Louis Riddick. The former personnel director is now a commentator on Monday Night Football. He’s friends and an ex-colleague of head coach Matt Nagy. He keeps himself up to date on the Bears’ situation regularly.
In his mind, there is only one obvious target.
Riddick went on Waddle & Silvy for ESPN 1000 and stated clearly what Pace and Nagy are likely to do. That is wear out the phone lines to Houston and basically ask Texans GM Nick Caserio what it would take to get Deshaun Watson. Whatever he wants, he can have it. Within some semblance of sanity of course.
Watson is a star. Everything the Bears have been missing at quarterback for decades. He is the one person who could change their fortunes overnight. Just about any price is worth paying. If it just isn’t possible? Then Riddick seems pretty certain Chicago may end up stepping away from the veteran market altogether. Sam Darnold? Marcus Mariota? Jameis Winston? None of those guys are worth it. A smarter play would be looking to the NFL draft.
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“I wouldn’t be comfortable going that route…I would rather start over with someone like a Mac Jones who I know comes from a very strong program, had very good teaching, who some of the great quarterback experts believe this kid has it all. No, he doesn’t have the outside pocket mobility or dynamic physical assets like Patrick (Mahomes) does or Aaron Rodgers does or maybe even Zach Wilson does.
But this guy is an absolute computer in the pocket. Great decisions, great deep ball accuracy, great touch, great leadership ability. All that stuff. I’d rather hitch my wagon to someone like that than try and rebuild one of the veterans on the market right now that have been subject to some of the things they’ve been subjected to.”
It’s an interesting dilemma for the Chicago Bears
While the names mentioned above might be more talented than Jones, they also have been corrupted to various degrees by bad coaching or bad on-field experiences. Darnold threw more interceptions than touchdowns in 2020. Winston was a backup last year and threw 30 interceptions the last time he was a starter in 2019. Marcus Mariota was benched that same year in favor of Ryan Tannehill who instantly played far better than him in the same system.
Do the Chicago Bears brass honestly feel any of those guys give them a better chance to win in 2021 and save jobs than a rookie like Jones would? The other side of that argument is this. What if Jones did come in and played well right away? Even if the Bears happened to not make the playoffs, it would be a potential sign they finally got something to work with at quarterback. Something to build around.
That would likely be enough to save Pace and Nagy moving forward.
Jones wouldn’t be the otherworldly talent some Bears fans may have hoped for. However, there is a possibility he can be a capable NFL starter. There is nothing wrong with that. If nothing else, it would buy time until the next big opportunity presents itself. Is that the way they’ll end up going? It’s still way too early to tell. Presuming there’s no action by the start of the league year on March 17th? That is when the buzz will really pick up.