Greg Couch
Videos by OutKick
The NFL quarterback sweepstakes is now, officially, hilarious. You have 15, 20 teams trying to throw their quarterback back into the lake in hopes of landing the big fish. All those new, hot young QBs in the league made everyone else look outdated.
That might make fans hopeful and delirious with dreams of their very own Deshaun Watson, but the problem is that the only quarterbacks left to catch are the bad ones the other teams threw back in. I might have just mixed metaphors there, but the point is this:
Help is not on the way. Panic is. There is no better evidence than the Chicago Bears, the team with the most historic QB deficiency, now apparently excitedly going after a historically deficient QB, Carson Wentz.
I mean, really. Carson Wentz. He was the worst quarterback in the NFL last year. He was worse than Mitch Trubisky, who the Bears are running out of town because he was so bad.
The Bears are the poster child for bad quarterbacks, but the entire NFL has missed the lesson of Tampa Bay’s 31-9 win over Kansas City in the Super Bowl. While the country now basks in the glow of Tom Brady’s greatness, the message should have been clear that you can still win the old fashioned way. In the trenches.
The mad-scientist offensive genius, Kansas City coach Andy Reid, and the greatest quarterback, Patrick Mahomes, managed only three measly field goals.
For a Chicagoan, used to tough teams and QBs who can’t throw straight, it was hard not to get a little emotional watching The Big Game won not by innovation but instead by a bloody nose.
Brady didn’t keep Mahomes from scoring a touchdown. The defining image of that Super Bowl wasn’t the halo over Brady’s head but instead Mahomes running around in circles for his life. Brady wasn’t the one chasing him.
For the Bears to take that message as evidence that they should now go get Carson Wentz. . .I mean. . . Carson Wentz? Getting rid of Trubisky for Wentz would be like me trading in my gray 2015 VW Tiguan for a blue 2015 VW Tiguan.
The entire NFL needs to rethink things. The Deshaun Watson sweepstakes has devolved into the Carson Wentz sweepstakes. It’s like winning an all-expenses paid trip to Toledo.
Look, Watson and Matt Stafford and even Aaron Rodgers teased NFL fans around the country by asking to be traded (Watson, Stafford) or pretending they wanted to be in order to get a new contract out of their current team (Rodgers).
Stafford already went to the Los Angeles Rams. Rodgers isn’t going anywhere. Dak Prescott will sign a long term deal with the Dallas Cowboys or stay there anyway, stuck with a franchise tag.
Last week, there were rumors that the Las Vegas Raiders were talking about trading Derek Carr to the Bears, but that rumor seems to have disappeared.
It’s hard to see what the Bears would have to offer the Houston Texans to land Watson. So at this point, there really isn’t anyone left.
The NFL is loaded with mediocre quarterbacks that executives believe would be great in a different jersey. So they pay those guys like stars and get fans excited. Until reality hits. Lipstick on a pig and all.
If the Bears are “big players’’ in this QB game, as FOX’s Jay Glazer said, then they need to realize that they’ve already lost it. Bears general manager Ryan Pace and coach Matt Nagy were granted one more year in their jobs despite their repeated failures because ownership said they “collaborated’’ well. I’m not making that up.
They need to collaborate now and set the next trend for the NFL, realizing that at some point, NFL teams are about to start trading their trash for other team’s trash.
If the Bears want to be any good next year, they’re going to have to realize that they shouldn’t trade away all sorts of top draft choices in order to get Carson Wentz.
Just re-sign Trubisky already and get it over with. That’s not going to make Bears fans happy, but it’s the best option left. And then draft offensive linemen. Lots of them. And defensive linemen. Trubisky would be a better QB with good blockers than Wentz would be with bad ones.
You know what they call a great quarterback with a bad offensive line?
A bad quarterback.
Brady was great and Mahomes was terrible, but that’s because Tampa Bay’s offensive line protected Brady while Tampa’s defensive line kept hitting Mahomes in the mouth.
Meanwhile, Tampa Bay drafted an offensive tackle in the first round of the 2020 draft while Kansas City’s two starting offensive tackles were out hurt.
The Bears and other NFL teams need to start fighting to make things as good for their mediocre quarterbacks as possible.
Draft or trade for linemen. But whatever you do, just don’t trade away the future or overpay for someone else’s mediocre quarterback. Draw a line and make sure you don’t give everything away for any quarterback beneath that line.
Call it the Carson Wentz Line.
Yeah…while I’m not a genius NFL GM I’d put the OL as the number 2 priority after the QB.
If you have to live with a mediocre QB…protect that asset with a good OL. One of two things will happen…you’ll eventually draft a better QB or you get a RB like Derrick Henry behind your line and it’ll mask the stink of the medicore QB.
I mean I always thought it was simple when it came to constructing a team…get the QB, protect the QB, turn the other guy’s QB to mush.
We’ll trade our crappy young quarterback for your crappy young quarterback and then tell the fans how we are improving. The Bears will only get better when Rodgers decides he wants out of Green Bay and forces a trade. Then the qb that sucks the least will win the division.
To be fair blue is an upgrade from gray.
To be fair with the Defense argument for Tampa Bay, they were facing a KC team missing both starting tackles. That’s a bit of a problem. It’s not like KC was near full strength on offense. Mahomes was therefore running for his life all night long, because backup tackles couldn’t block anyone. I don’t know if it would’ve changed the result the game, but I can assure you with both starting tackles in the game KC scores WELL over nine points.
Also to be fair to Wentz, name one of his top three receivers this year as far as catches. I dare you without looking it up. I couldn’t. Hurts didn’t do any better. I’m not sure anyone would.
You have to evaluate things in the proper context.
John you hit the nail right on the head! I could not agree with you more on both. Give any QB with a poor offensive line and he is doomed for disaster. Maybe not every week, but most weeks. At first I was angry at the Eagles for even entertaining the idea of trading Wentz, but then I thought, he needs a fresh start with a team with a good healthy offensive line and good receivers who will stay healthy. Everyone forgets, Wentz literally carried the Eagles into the playoffs with no line and no receivers. NO QB will succeed in Philly or anywhere else with poor lines and receivers!