Top Five Bears Tragedies: Part 5
The bears have been around for over one hundred years at this point, we've had many triumphs and many failures. As much as we celebrate our victories we also need to remember our failures. So here is part one of my top five bears tragedies.
WE HAVEN'T HAD THE BEST TRACK RECORD DRAFTING QUARTERBACKS SINCE THE LATE '90S
A look at the Chicago Bears' draft history on Pro Football Reference�will tell you that it's been a while since they drafted a first-round quarterback who went on to have a successful NFL career � that would be Jim Harbaugh, who was picked 26th in 1987 and went on to greater fame as a coach after playing 14 pro seasons. Twelve years later, they selected Cade McNown with the 12th pick in the 1999 draft, and he was a flop, gone after two mediocre seasons. Rex Grossman went 22nd overall in 2003 and led Chicago to an appearance at Super Bowl XLI, but spent most of his nine-year NFL career as a backup.
In 2017, Chicago had the No. 2 overall pick in the NFL Draft, and they used it on Mitchell Trubisky, who, in all fairness, had more than decent numbers during his time with the Bears. But statistics don't tell the whole story when evaluating a player, and they can often be misleading; Sports Mockery�cited analytics from Sports Info Solutions, observing that Trubisky, despite his solid numbers in the 2020 season, whiffed on too many easy plays. It's also worth mentioning that the Bears selected Trubisky eight spots ahead of Patrick Mahomes, who went to the Kansas City Chiefs and led them to a championship at Super Bowl LIV.
The jury is still out on Justin Fields, the first-round QB drafted by the Bears (at No. 11 overall), Bears fans can only hope he doesn't follow in the footsteps of McNown or Grossman.
