I’ve always held the belief that you need a top-tier QB to win consistently and that the Bears need to find theirs. I’ve changed my mind.
Look at the great-performing QBs around the league who are leading playoff caliber teams. Mahomes, Hurts, Allen, Herbert, Tua, Geno, Goff, Purdy, Lamar, Burrow, T Law.
The only QB on that entire list who’s consistently led a super bowl contending team year in and year out (regardless of ebbs amd flows with talent around him) is Mahomes. He’s the unicorn. And it’s hard to say Mahomes is fool-proof because he’s been in the perfect coaching situation his entire career.
Every other QB on that list has had huge ups and fairly big downs due to a variety of reasons. Coaching changes, lack of talent around him, injuries etc. I don’t think you can plug and play any of them (even though some are “proven” as great) and expect them to thrive.
The common denominator for success seems to be great coaching (and gm roster management) that works in concert with a talented/dedicated QB.
Which all leads me to say I think the Bears need to focus on finding a proven coach to install a proven system and keep Fields.
Hoping and praying that the next rookie QB is going to be “the one,” is the best way to the Bears right back to where they are right now.
I hear you. And I honestly think I did a bad job of making the point I was trying to make. If you look at that list, almost every single QB found themselves in a very good situation (coaching and roster-wise) early in their career. There’s a few guys who struggled initially until they were later in a better situation. I’m not saying I’m confident Fields will be a franchise QB if he had the right coaching. I’m saying I think almost nobody will thrive if the coaching and organizational structure isn’t better. So rather than spend another high pick on a guy and bring him into a bad situation, let’s build up the trenches, keep trying to find the coaching staff of the future and go from there.