Everything still depends on Rex Grossman.
The weirdest thing about the Bears’ season of 2003 is that its relevance probably can’t be known until 2004, maybe 2005. The one player who means the most to any realistic future for the team is the one who isn’t playing.
Not until Grossman plays can general manager Jerry Angelo be judged. Not until Grossman succeeds can the Kordell Stewart failure be forgotten. By then, it may be too late for coach Dick Jauron.
If Grossman plays well right away whenever he gets the chance, as he did as a redshirt freshman for Steve Spurrier at Florida, Jauron will get credit for bringing him along slowly. But the credit may arrive via mail. If he doesn’t play well, neither Jauron nor Angelo will be around long enough to get the blame.
Coaches and general managers don’t get to endure many failures at quarterback. Jauron may turn out to be the one who played Cade McNown too early and Grossman too late. Angelo already has Stewart on his resume.
As Detroit’s Joey Harrington will remind the Bears on Sunday in his 21st start, it may take considerable time for the Bears to find out about Grossman. The Lions are already on their second coach trying to find out whether their No. 1 pick of last year is their answer to the future.
It took two coaches and three years for the Dallas Cowboys to find out about Quincy Carter and the New York Jets to find out about Chad Pennington.
Until Grossman plays, it hardly matters how the Bears’ other first-round pick, defensive end Michael Haynes, is developing. Until Grossman plays, it doesn’t matter how the 10 players Angelo passed up in the draft to trade down are playing as rookies.
Don’t forget, the Bears had the fourth pick in the draft but slid down to Nos. 14 and 22 so they could get a defensive lineman and a quarterback. They didn’t try to trade up to get Carson Palmer and they passed up other first-rounders Byron Leftwich and Kyle Boller, so apparently they had their eye on Grossman all the time.
A quick check of the players passed up:
– No. 4: Defensive tackle DeWayne Robertson has started every game for the Jets, with 40 tackles, 1.5 sacks and four quarterback pressures. The Jets lead the league in sacks, but Bears defensive coordinator Greg Blache says sacks aren’t important, and maybe he’s right. The Jets are 2-6.
– No. 5: Cornerback Terence Newman has started every game for the 6-2 Cowboys, who love him.
– No. 6: Defensive tackle Johnathan Sullivan has started five games for the 4-5 Saints, with 15 tackles and a sack. He’s the player the Bears thought they could still get after trading down.
– No. 7: Leftwich has started five games for the Jaguars. He has a passer efficiency rating of 71.9, ahead of Chris Chandler’s 66, but the Jaguars have won only one game.
– No. 8: Offensive tackle Jordan Gross has started every game for the 6-2 Panthers.
– No. 9: Defensive lineman Kevin Williams has started every game for the 6-2 Vikings, recording 28 tackles, 4.5 sacks and 11 hurries.
– No. 10: Defensive end-linebacker Terrell Suggs plays in nickel rush packages and has six sacks and an interception for the 5-3 Ravens.
– No. 11: Cornerback Marcus Trufant has started every game for the 6-2 Seahawks, who think they love him more than the Cowboys love Newman. The Bears are falling in love with their own rookie cornerback, No. 2 draft choice Charles Tillman, so passing up Newman and Trufant looks justifiable as long as their defensive line pick, Haynes, works out. If Haynes doesn’t work out and Grossman does, no problem.
– No. 12: Defensive tackle Jimmy Kennedy, who played with Haynes at Penn State, has found the NFL transition too difficult so far to make a dent for the 5-3 Rams.
– No. 13: Defensive lineman Ty Warren has started five games for the 7-2 Patriots and has 25 tackles and one sack.
Until Grossman plays, no Bears fan is allowed to wonder how so many teams with better records than the Bears manage to plug in their top rookies so quickly. Haynes has yet to start and has 11 tackles and one sack.
Jauron has the wide support of veterans for starting Chandler as long as the Bears remain in mathematical playoff contention. But until Grossman plays, these are the 1982 pre-strike Bears, who went 0-2 before rookie coach Mike Ditka turned to rookie quarterback Jim McMahon, who finished 3-4. They are the 1987-89 Bears juggling McMahon and Mike Tomczak between injuries while grooming 1987 No. 1 pick Jim Harbaugh. Nobody ever will know whether Harbaugh could have made a difference in those playoff losses to Washington and San Francisco at Soldier Field.
Until Grossman plays, everything else is temporary entertainment.
Think about this: Since 1985, there have been 22 rookie quarterbacks who have started at least eight games in their first seasons.
Chandler, who started 13 games for the 1988 Colts, has the best winning record at 9-4. He’s followed by Kerry Collins, who was 7-6 as a starter for the 1995 Panthers, their inaugural season.
The three worst records for rookie quarterbacks since 1985 have been Troy Aikman (1-10 for the 1989 Cowboys), Chris Weinke (1-14 for the 2001 Panthers) and Peyton Manning (3-13 for the 1998 Colts).
Chandler, by the way, has said he had no idea what he was doing as a rookie despite the team’s success.
Manning vs. Leftwich: Manning relates to Leftwich. The two will face off Sunday.
“I think for a quarterback–not necessarily for the team, but for the quarterback–it’s the best thing to be in there and playing,” Manning said.
Manning started every game as a rookie and threw for an impressive 3,739 yards and 26 touchdowns. But he also threw 28 interceptions.
Leftwich has nine interceptions in five starts and has fumbled nine times, losing six. Last week he lost two fumbles and threw a game-clinching interception in a 24-17 loss to Baltimore.
“I don’t think I’m doing anything too bad,” Leftwich said. “But for some reason, if I do something wrong, it goes very, very wrong.”
Raving Raven: Coach Brian Billick called his 5-3 Ravens “the best 5-3 team that I’ve had. That’s saying a lot.” It’s saying he feels better about his current team at the moment than he did of his Super Bowl team of 2000.
This year’s Ravens have scored more points (184-134) and gained more yards (2,421-2,194) than the 2000 team. The defense has allowed 60 more points (149-89) and more yards (2,305-2,011) than the team’s record-making Super Bowl defense. Billick says the defensive talent matches up. And of course, he is happy with the shaky progress of Boller, whose 62.3 passer rating is lowest in the AFC.
McGahee close: Not even the Bills thought rookie running back Willis McGahee would be ready to play this season after his knee injury in the Fiesta Bowl. But he was activated Wednesday and looked good in practice. He’s not supposed to play in Dallas on Sunday.
“It’s like a training camp for him right now,” Bills coach Gregg Williams said. “Hopefully, if he continues to work as hard as he has been working, he’ll get a chance to get into a game this year.”
Said McGahee: “I’m just trying to get back to my old self. . . . The coach said I’m a football player now. I wasn’t a football player at first. Now I’m with the team. I can do everything they’re doing now.”
The Bills are 31st in rushing but 26th in rushing attempts. Travis Henry is hardly the worst back in the league. If McGahee is to make a difference, offensive coordinator Kevin Gilbride is going to have to call his number.
Wily veteran: San Diego defensive end Marcellus Wiley is tired of tiptoeing around the question of whether 41-year-old Doug Flutie should be starting ahead of Drew Brees (he will Sunday) and whether Flutie should have played earlier against the Bears.
“You know the answer,” Wiley said. “You want me to say it? Yes. Duh. The guys in the locker room, I’m sure half of them are going to say, `Well, it’s the coach’s decision. We have to play with whoever.’ But I’ll tell you what they whisper to me: Yeah, they wish he had [gone in earlier].
“They probably aren’t going to say it because football is a little different than basketball. If we were playing basketball you would have heard that a long time ago because that guaranteed contract changes how you talk. So we whisper and they yell. But I’m tired of whispering, because nothing’s getting told. Nothing’s getting across.”
No wonder football doesn’t have guaranteed contracts. The quotes would be too good.
