Just How Many QBs Will Start for the Bears This Season?
By Benjy Lipsman in News on Nov 29, 2004 7:59PM
Following Thursday's debacle in Dallas, the Bears signed veteran QB Jeff George to a 1-year contract. George, the first overall pick in the 1990 draft never lived up to the lofty expectations and developed a reputation for being difficult. Which may explain why he played for 5 teams in 12 years and has been out of the NFL since early in the 2001 season despite good skills. But he and his agent have been lobbying the Bears since Grossman got hurt, claiming he's found a new passion for the game and has adjusted his attitude. He must be desperate to get back into the league if he's even resorted to looking for teams on Match.com!
There's much speculation whether this was the result of Craig Krenzel's ankle sprain that knocked him out of the Dallas game, or whether it was simply the ineffectiveness of the Bears' offense since Rex Grossman's season-ending injury. While Krenzel had won his first three starts his stats pretty much stunk, with a QB rating of a whopping 52.5 Jonanthan Quinn has been equally bad with a QB rating of 53.7.
The Bears are supposedly going to turn to Chad Hutchinson this weekend against the Minnesota Vikings. Picked up following Grossman's injury, Hutchinson was cut by the Cowboys in training camp after losing his starting job to Quincy Carter (also let go in camp) last year. He's supposedly been a bit slow at picking up the Bears offense, which is why we haven't seen him on the field yet. That's a real bad sign. Their offense has never been anything fancy.
Well, when Hutchinson fails there will be Jeff George to turn the ball over to. That'd make him the fifth different starting QB for the Bears this season! The Google gods were conspiring against Chicagoist in our quest to find out whether that's a record. But think about this little stat -- the Green Bay Packers' Brett Farve has started every single game since 1992! Can anyone name the Bears starting QB at the time?