Bears Are Caught in a Tough Place

NFL insider Peter King finds the situation the Bears are in as they seek a franchise quarterback entirely impossible and makes a suggestion for an alternative approach

It was enough to catch the attention immediately of any Bears fan, and not in a good way.

Peter King put out his Football Morning in American column early on a Sunday night and in it gave an assessment of the Bears quarterback situation very similar to one arrived at on this website a few weeks ago.

"Short of a miracle, the Bears are screwed," King wrote.

Despite all the rumors of interest and being aggressive, going after quarterbacks who either aren't available or aren't specifically available to teams without early draft picks will do the Bears little good.

King has decided, just like BearDigest did, that the Bears are in a situation in the draft and in free agency where they cannot get one of the hot-ticket items—no Russell Wilson, no Deshaun Watson, no Derek Carr and probably none of the top five draft picks at quarterback in the draft.

King said he wondered: "The reports last week that the Bears will go hard after Russell Wilson left me asking: 'With what trade chips, exactly?' "

Exactly.

And he also pointed to the biggest stumbling block in this entire scenario: the salary cap hit Seattle would need to absorb.

"Why would Seattle incur a $39-million cap hit for 2021 by trading Wilson to the Bears for a package including (presumbably) edge rusher Khalil Mack, quarterback Nick Foles, the 20th overall pick this year and Chicago's first-round pick next year, among other things?" King wrote.

Looking at the other teams' point of view in this solves plenty, and that's what King did by looking at what Seattle had to gain. He pointed out they have one pick in the top 125. W

ith the 20th pick, how are they supposed to find a quarterback of the future to replace Wilson? Even if they use first- and second-round picks acquired from the Bears to move up, it's not sufficient to get them to where they'd need to be to acquire one of the top quarterbacks in this draft. 

Throwing in an extra first-rounder from 2022 wouldn't help much, either. That pick carries almost the same value as the first pick of Round 2, since they don't know where it would be in the draft. It could all help Seattle get as high as eighth and this doesn't guarantee one of the top three or four quarterbacks.

 It might not even guarantee one they've graded highly themselves.

If you were paying attention to a team outside the Chicago city limits, you'd realize the Seahawks have no first-round pick this year and have no first-round pick next year because they traded them for the incomparable Jamal Adams.

READ: Russell Wilson's Last Discussion with Pete Carroll

So they really have nothing else they could throw into a trade to move up and find a quarterback after losing Wilson.

The goal here is to make the Seahawks an offer they couldn't refuse. They can't even begin to consider what the Bears can offer, let alone refuse it. 

The Bears have nothing to offer them that could make them want to willingly absorb a $39 million hit.

And even if the trade came after June 1, and the salary cap hit on Seattle for dealing Wilson for 2021 was less, they still would have to absorb a big hit as well from Khalil Mack's big contract. Meanwhile, the Bears would be taking an immediate cap hit themselves for trading Mack.

"Seems like a futile pipe dream, that the Bears would have much Seattle GM John Schneider would find equitable," King concludes.

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He does make one suggestion the Bears should actually consider, and that's trading for Marcus Mariota.

However, he bases hope Mariota could be a different player as a Chicago starter on the thought he played well for Las Vegas last year.

This has been widely reported, in fact. And it's not necessarily true.

Really, Mariota didn't get much of a chance to prove this. In the only game he did play, he had one touchdown pass and one interception, had a nice 8.1 yards per attempt but eventually didn't hit 61% completions and had a passer rating of 83.3. Mitchell Trubisky had a better passer rating in five of his nine starts last year, and better yards per attempt in a couple of those. So how exactly is that an upgrade over Trubisky?

Mariota did run for 88 yards in the loss he played in for the Raiders against the Chargers. Trubisky can run, too. Big deal.

If King is right, and the Bears "are screwed," there really is only one good option.

It's retaining as many top picks in the draft as possible, building up the offensive line as well as they can, keeping Allen Robinson on a franchise tag or a new deal and going with either Trubisky or Nick Foles accompanied by a strong running game. Or, if you're not interested in Mitch, the fifth year, then Alex Smith with Foles or Mariota in a trade.

Either way, they 're not getting Wilson and they're going to need to get much better running the ball to avoid being "screwed."

Twitter: BearDigest@BearsOnMaven