Chicago Bears: Quarterback isn’t the only thing that needs fixing

The Chicago Bears have more than the quarterback position to fix.

The greatest quarterback in the history of the Chicago Bears is Sid Luckman. Luckman is also a man who was part of the Normandy invasion during World War II. So, suffice to say it’s been a while since the Bears have had a truly great quarterback. Sure, championships were won with Bill Wade and Jim McMahon, while reaching a Super Bowl was reached with Rex Grossman. None of these quarterbacks are on the top of anyone’s Hall of Fame ballots.

The search for a quarterback has been going on for so long, the Bears fan base still celebrate the anniversary of trading for Jay Cutler. This sort of frustration would seem unfair for any fan base, and it’s been made even worse when the NFL community can’t stop reminding them that the Bears traded up in the 2017 draft to take Mitch Trubisky over Patrick Mahomes and Deshaun Watson (in case you hadn’t heard).

While we’re on the subject, given the nature of how Trubisky came into the NFL, it’s unlikely he’ll ever be able to shake what the Bears did on draft day to get him — and that is pretty unfortunate and unfair. The only thing he can really do to salvage his career in Chicago is to win a Super Bowl MVP with the Bears, regardless of how he gets there.

Speaking of Super Bowl MVPs, Nick Foles, a former winner of that honor in his own right, was brought in to try and possibly solve the Bears’ quarterback woes. Foles has proven not to be the answer either so far in his Bears tenure. In summation, the Bears have two quarterbacks, which in the NFL, means you have no quarterback.

Bringing in a new quarterback won’t cure all of the Chicago Bears’ woes.

The Bears coaching staff appear to be on thin ice, and summer is coming. Matt Nagy is a former NFL Coach of the Year but the fall from grace has been spectacular. He’s only two years from the award, but a change of direction would not be unprecedented. Ray Rhodes was a Coach of the Year fired three years after winning the award.

It seems that the staff and the players are on separate pages and it’d been pointed out publicly. It’s a situation that’s only getting worse. General manager Ryan Pace should feel his seat getting warmer as well, especially if the fans in the city of big shoulders has anything to say about it.

Then there’s the offensive line. Simply put, the Bears’ offensive line is abysmal. Even if the Bears drafted Mahomes or Watson, they’d be hard-pressed to do anything with this line. And while Foles did not look good and eventually got injured, Trubisky has at least used his athleticism to look at least slightly better. You can knock a lot when it comes to Trubisky but the kid has heart. The Bears also have talent on the outside and in the backfield but, again, it’s a moot point if there is no protection up front.

Defensively, the Bears are solid with talent across the board. When it comes to the Bears, that’s something that can always be counted on as much as mediocre quarterback play. The defense has admittedly taken a step back since the heyday that was 2018, though.

There are a couple of factors contributing to this. The first being that, since the dreaded double doink, the defense has been visibly frustrated as they feel they need to win games by themselves. The other factor being that Vic Fangio is gone. Much like the Eagles offense and Carson Wentz took a step back when offensive coordinator Frank Reich took a head coaching job, the Bears defense did the same when defensive coordinator Fangio took his own head gig.

On the topic of Wentz, he’s been the subject of many trade rumors recently. But with the state of the Bears offensive line, it’d be more of the same in the Windy City. Fellow NFC East quarterback Dak Prescott’s name came up in connection to the Bears by Stephen A. Smith on ESPN’s First Take. But Prescott has shown that he needs almost a perfect situation. While the Bears have talent, with the state of the offensive line, it’d be hard to tell.

Then there’s the case of the draft. Even with a COVID-affected college football season, this has turned into a very deep quarterback class, especially in the first round. It’d be enticing to draft one, but with the aforementioned issues, it would most likely have the team going laterally instead of up. Sure, the Bears can always bring in a new staff and allow them to pick their quarterback but the fact of the matter is the offensive line is still in shambles.

Given the long, and almost circular, history of the Bears as a franchise, it’s easy to see why the obvious answer is to just bring in another quarterback. This is a team in need of a major overhaul when it comes to the offensive line, and administration, all of which are not easy problems to solve. Pointedly, there are way more issues for this team than one player can solve, at least right out of the gate.