The Chicago Bears will undoubtedly be looking for a quarterback in the next few months.
But, where will they turn? The fact that the front office kept general manager Ryan Pace and head coach Matt Nagy around has to mean the team is moving on from Mitchell Trubisky, as the relationship between he and Nagy has seemed to sour.
Without Trubisky in Chicago, the Bears have veteran Nick Foles under contract through 2022, but he will likely serve as either a backup or a bridge. He’s not the long-term answer — and Pace needs to find that long-term answer in a hurry if he’s to stick around for much longer than 2021.
Going into the offseason, Pace could opt to try for a free agent as he did a few years ago with Mike Glennon. Some of the top names available will be Dak Prescott, Jacoby Brissett, Tyrod Taylor, Ryan Fitzpatrick and Jameis Winston.
Only one of those guys could be looked at as the long-term solution, and he’d require the Bears to slash a ton of salary to make it work. So, free agency may not be the way to go.
Now, the draft on the other hand, is where things get interesting. The Bears dug themselves a hole in draft positioning by winning three of their last four games and sneaking into the playoffs, and they’ll pick at no. 20 overall in a couple of months.
The possibility of a trade-up is always there, but how many other teams will they have to compete with in attempting the same? If they’re lucky, they may only have four or five teams thinking quarterback in the first round. But, that likely won’t be the case. The Bears could have as many as nine or even 10 teams thinking about taking a quarterback — which means we may see five go in the first round.
Recent quarterback moves could tell us a little, or a lot, about some teams’ future plans when it comes to quarterback. A few, in particular, could impact the Bears. Let’s start with a possible future Hall of Fame gunslinger hanging up the cleats.
