Chicago Bears should have just stuck with Nick Foles

The Chicago Bears continue to make puzzling moves at the quarterback position.

After Chicago Bears fans got their hopes up that maybe either Deshaun Watson or Russell Wilson would come to their team, those hopes were dashed on Tuesday evening when the team signed Andy Dalton to a one-year $10 million deal.

Adam Schefter reported that the Bears really wanted Wilson and only pulled the trigger on signing Dalton once they were told Seattle was holding onto their quarterback.

Aggressively pursuing Wilson made a lot of sense for Chicago, but what didn’t make sense is that once they found out they were getting him, why go out and sign Andy Dalton to a contract for that much money?

Dalton was a backup for the Cowboys last year and at 33 years old, clearly isn’t the future for the Bears in any capacity. Dalton is actually older than Chicago’s other quarterback on the roster, Nick Foles, who is 32 years old.

These are two very similar players and that’s why this signing made no sense for the Bears. They essentially brought in a backup quarterback to compete for a starting job against another backup quarterback.

The Chicago Bears clearly made this move out of desperation.

When Wilson became unavailable, Ryan Pace and Matt Nagy figured they had to do something at the quarterback position and not enter the season with just Foles, so they signed Dalton. Rather than inking Dalton to a $10 million deal, why didn’t the Bears try to draft a quarterback?

No, they wouldn’t get any of the top five names (Trevor Lawrence, Zach Wilson, Justin Fields, Trey Lance, or Mac Jones), but there are still some decent names who will be there past round one (Kyle Trask, Davis Mills, Jamie Newman, Kellen Mond, or Sam Ehlinger to name a few). The Bears could have let Foles compete with the rookie and if he beat them out, maybe that’d have been motivation for him on the field.

Foles isn’t a bad quarterback, but he’s usually a backup and now Dalton finds himself in a similar role. Rather than bringing in someone who could have been a realistic future option, the Bears decided to have two backup quarterbacks go head-to-head.

Some might say this is Chicago’s way of tanking, but Nagy and Pace are fighting for their jobs, so they wouldn’t benefit from a top pick in next year’s draft. This is yet another puzzling move made by the Chicago Bears when it comes to the quarterback position.