Sure, Bears quarterback Kordell Stewart admits, he used to daydream about it.
Stewart smiled Friday recalling how he wondered what he would feel like in a Denver Broncos jersey and John Elway’s shadow. Or how much he would enjoy taking the field every Sunday with mile-high expectations on his shoulder pads and playing pro football in a state that already adored him.
“That’s all we talked about in college was the Broncos and Elway and all the good stuff,” said Stewart, who starred in college at the University of Colorado in Boulder–just 30 miles northwest of Denver.
Naturally when Stewart became a free-agent last winter after eight seasons with the Pittsburgh Steelers, he romanticized briefly about returning to life in the Rockies.
But the reality was the Broncos didn’t want him.
“It would have been nice to have the opportunity to visit my old college stomping grounds and see all my friends and buddies–just to go and see what it was like,” Stewart said. “Now they have the new stadium, and it would have been nice just to see it. But it all worked out for the best.”
The Bears are banking on it. They signed Stewart to a two-year, $4.75 million contract while the Broncos invested $40 million on a seven-year contract for quarterback Jake Plummer, the reason Stewart never got the call he wanted from coach Mike Shanahan.
Denver agreed to terms with Plummer shortly after the former Arizona Cardinals quarterback visited the Bears in what many believe was a ploy for leverage. From the outset, Plummer made clear he preferred to work with a proven developer of quarterbacks, like Shanahan, more than with a coach who didn’t have that on his resume, like Dick Jauron.
Plummer, 28, is two years younger than Stewart, and was 30-52 in six years as a starter in Arizona while Stewart was 46-29 after eight years in Pittsburgh. Though the Bears zeroed in on Plummer before setting their sights on Stewart, they claimed that they didn’t find the differences between the two quarterbacks to be significant.
The quarterbacks do share several similarities that go beyond their charismatic, infectious personalities.
Each can look equally unstoppable and unreliable running an offense–sometimes in the same game, sometimes in the same series. Each left behind a trail of dashed dreams and failed expectations with his former team. Each will be expected this season to not only elevate the performance of the other 52 players on the roster but the mood of a city starved for winning football.
Saturday night in Champaign, the two guys facing the same career crossroads last winter meet on the same field as the Bears take on the Broncos in the second preseason game for both teams. A T-shirt maker might call it, “Slash vs. Snake: The Castoff Bowl.”
“It’s pretty funny we get a chance to play against each other,” Stewart said Friday. “The good thing is we both have jobs. He had the opportunity to come here and visit and he didn’t want to come, and he went to Denver. So I’m here in Chicago. I’m the lucky guy.”
Like Plummer, Stewart expects to play the first quarter Saturday before putting on a baseball cap on the sideline. Jauron said Friday that Chris Chandler will play most of the second quarter and rookie Rex Grossman will start the third quarter and play most of the second half.
Whether No. 4 quarterback Cory Sauter gets in late in the fourth quarter, Jauron said, will depend on the game.
Besides the quarterback subplots, the only major drama for the Bears surrounds the debut of running back Anthony Thomas, who hasn’t carried the football in a game since last Dec. 1 against Green Bay when he broke his left index finger, a season-ending injury. Thomas wanted to play a week ago but Jauron rested him to take a look at backup Adrian Peterson, who also will take some snaps with the first-team offense.
Jauron insists that Thomas remains the No. 1 running back but he may be the most vulnerable starter on the Bears’ offense and needs a strong showing to quiet critics, some of whom work at Halas Hall.
“I expect Anthony will play really well,” Jauron said. “He’s really anxious to get out and get going.”
Guard Chris Villarrial and safety Mike Green return to the starting lineup after sitting out last Saturday with groin injuries, but the Bears will play without starting outside linebacker Bryan Knight. Knight didn’t practice all week with a strained right knee but expects to return Monday.
Rookie Lance Briggs, Knight’s replacement, has displayed good abandon and awareness in training camp but defensive coordinator Greg Blache needs more than three good weeks to be convinced.
“I don’t like rookies, I don’t trust rookies,” Blache said. “He’s just got to prove to us that he deserves to be part of the big dogs. [Rookies] will break your heart in a heartbeat.
“They’re not used to playing on this level with this kind of pressure over a period of time. I see him at practice sometimes and his brain goes to mush. He still has to earn his stripes.”
So do the rest of the Bears, especially the No. 1 offense led by Stewart. Three series against the Colts produced a field goal, a punt and a turnover deep in enemy territory. Stewart took only 14 snaps and may not take many more than that against the Broncos, so he warns Bears fans from making too many premature judgments in preseason about the supposed new-and-improved offense.
“It’s coming,” Stewart said. “We want to take baby steps before we start sprinting.”
