For 75 yards Wednesday, Bears right guard Chris Villarrial watched Rex Grossman’s spiral soar like the expectations surrounding the rookie quarterback.
Villarrial, a starter since 1996, has seen 13 other Bears quarterbacks throw passes during his tenure. But maybe none quite like the one who has been handed the keys to the offense for the final three games of the season.
“It was unbelievable [and] he hit the receiver on the fly,” Villarrial said of Grossman’s most memorable deep pass in practice Wednesday.
“He’s going to be a good one.”
The Bears drafted Grossman to be a great one and make occasions like Wednesday’s announcement of a quarterback change obsolete at Halas Hall.
But it’s one thing to let Grossman start, and quite another to let him play.
“As long as we have enough guys to block and we can throw deep, we’ll throw deep,” said Grossman, 23.
Quarterbacks coach Greg Olson described Grossman as a “gambler,” who has a “short-term memory” and predicted the Bears would throw the ball more Sunday. Still, Jauron didn’t sound like a guy ready yet to turn the West Coast offense into the “Fun ‘n’ Gun.”
“We function the best when we can run the football and then play-action pass,” Jauron said.
Anthony Thomas viewed all the consternation over the quarterback in a way that would make any running back proud.
“Anybody can hand the ball off,” Thomas said, chuckling.
He was kidding, but in Thomas’ sarcasm was a salient point about Grossman’s debut. The more effectively the Bears run against Minnesota, the less aggressively the Vikings will be able to rush the passer with an array of blitzes.
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Edited by Michael Kellams (mkellams@tribune.com) and alBerto Trevino(atrevino@tribune.com)
