NEWSLETTER
Chicago Bears General Manager Ryan Poles seemed pleased when discussing his team’s offseason with ESPN’s Adam Schefter.
“I’m really happy about it. I know our entire organization is, our scouting staff is, our coaching staff they’re fired up,” Poles said (p.s. – we dug deeper in a full post). “We put a plan together to improve and it went really well. It went as planned. I’m so used to having to adapt and adjust. And there’s always a little bit of that, but when things fall in place the way you would like them it’s always really positive. So we’re fired up.”
Poles has ample reason to befired up about what the Bears did this offseason. The offense has five new starters, headlined by No. 1 overall pick Caleb Williams and No. 9 selection Rome Odunze. But not to be overshadowed are wide receiver Keenan Allen (who ame via trade) and center Coleman Shelton (we’ve been wanting a new center for a while, right?). There are new coaches on both sides of the ball, with a new play-calling offensive coordinator (Shane Waldron) representing a big splash hire for Chicago’s coaching staff this past offseason. Simply put, there is no denying that the Bears’ waves of change this offseason are impressive to think about.
But what if there is more on the way?
Do the Chicago Bears have one last headline-making move up their sleeve?
In attempting to unearth one final piece of the offseason puzzle for each of the NFL’s 32 teams, ESPN’s Aaron Schatz offers up the idea of the Bears pursuing quarterback Ryan Tannehill. I had not considered the possibiltiy of Chicago checking in on the veteran quarterback since Tyson Bagent is returning and Brett Rypien is following Shane Waldron from the west coast. Bringing in another quarterback didn’t make sense to me. But for what it’s worth, Schatz had an explanation worth discussing:
“The Bears believe they put a real playoff-contending team around rookie quarterback Caleb Williams. What on earth are they going to do if Williams gets hurt? Tyson Bagent and Brett Rypien are not bringing this team to the playoffs. The Bears should sign the best free agent quarterback left on the market and let him earn a check as Williams’ backup and as a veteran part-time coach.”
I understand why Aaron Schatz believes the Bears and Ryan Tannehill are a good fit. Because if this front office thinks this team is playoff-bound, it should probably have a better (or at least, more stable) option at the backup quarterback position. We’ve seen Tannehill steward the ship in Tennessee and make the playoffs. And if the Bears wanted to upgrade the quarterback situation behind Caleb Williams, then going after Ryan Tannehill makes sense.
However, I struggle to justify spending anything more than the minimum on a backup quarterback right now. This isn’t to say I’m wholly against it. Maybe if the Bears were somewhere else on their team-building arc, then I would possibly think differently about how to address the position. I would likely be more into it if the team was seen as a Super Bowl contender. But right now? Spending on a backup quarterback feels wasteful. This isn’t to say it couldn’t work. It could! But it isn’t something I’d be looking for the Bears to do at this time.
Besides, there are other fits who could be considered as better fits for the 2024 Bears. For instance, defensive linemen such as Yannick Ngakoue and Carl Lawson would fill a more prominent team need in Chicago. And yet, Schatz sees the Raiders as a fit for Ngakoue and the Seahawks as a landing spot for Laweson. If either of those deals went down and the Bears were unable to add at that position, I’d probably come on here and post a few hundred words of disappointment.
In the end, I think there are still some moves worth making for Chicago’s football team. And it sounds like Ryan Poles is willing to make them before trianing camp starts later this month. Don’t you wonder what is running through the GM’s mind at the start of July? I know I do…
