Official Stance Concerning Rex Grossman

Sunday, December 23, 2007

Official Stance Concerning Rex Grossman

I thought Rex Grossman would be better than he's been this year. That said, he's still the least of the Bears' problems.

Rex Grossman had a solid season in 2006. He was a world beater in the first month, and was in the early season MVP talks. I'm not exactly sure when the Good-Rex-Bad-Rex talk came into play, but it was in full effect by the time the two-week Super Bowl frenzy rolled around.

I can remember two bad games for Grossman last season. (OK, three...but the New Year's Eve scrimmage against the Packers doesn't count.) He was awful against the Cardinals on Monday Night Football. The Bears won that game. He was bad in the Super Bowl. The Bears lost that game.

But he was great in the playoff games leading up to the Super Bowl. He was clutch against Seattle, and made enough big plays to blow out the New Orleans Saints. Beyond that, l can think of a couple games he single-handedly won with his arm last year as well. He wasn't just a game manager. The Bears' weren't always just winning IN SPITE of their quarterback. But the media created such a monster that almost everyone started to buy into it by the time the preseason rolled around this year. Including Rex.

Rex dropped three fumbles in a preseason game against the Colts this year. All of a sudden, "he's awful!" It was preseason! I truly feel like those three fumbles doomed him though. Remember...when he was benched this season he was only 1-2!!! The Bears' had the Lions next, and I truly believe with all my heart that Chicago would have beaten the Lions and the season would have been a completely different story if they had just let Rex ride it out.

Instead, they jacked with him...benched him, put Griese in, Griese got hurt, put Rex back in, Rex got hurt, and now you STILL don't know what you have in Rex Grossman. If you were going to have a losing season anyway, at least find out what you have in your would-be franchise quarterback.

After Griese's initial debacle at Detroit, he actually looked solid for a couple games. People got excited. They wondered why the Bears didn't make the switch earlier! They thought it justified their Rex hatred.

It didn't. Aside from changing quarterbacks, the Bears changed a lot of other things. First of all, they got a couple of the key defensive players back. Then, they started playing Adrian Peterson a little more. Peterson offered a pass-catching threat out of the backfield that Cedric Benson did not. That was a new wrinkle. So was Greg Olsen--the first tight end taken in the 2007 draft. He was a new weapon. Then they started playing Devin Hester on offense. That opened things up and Griese had a lot of fun with that. They completely changed the offensive game plan and put in a lot of safe passes for Griese. He found moderate success.

Rex wasn't so lucky when he was in there. I can look at a couple key point this season that turned it upside down. One was Ryan Longwell hitting that kick at the gun to beat the Bears after their frenzied comeback. One was the inability to pick up one little first down late against the Giants. Oh there were others. But the single play that stands out in my mind was the deep ball in the first game against San Diego when Bernard Berrian ran the wrong route.

This was supposed to be the year that Bernard Berrian emerged as a true number one receiver. Muhsin Muhammed is getting older. Berrian had a terrific run in the playoffs last year, and he and Rex established an exciting longball threat last year. But he got off to an awful start when he ran that bad route against the Chargers. Rex had been flawless up to that point, and the Bears were driving. At this point in the season, no one's confidence had been shattered yet. No one knew Rex would eventually get benched. No one knew Berrian would have a horribly inconsistent season. All we knew is that the Bears were the defending NFC champs, and that the CHI/SD game was a "possible Super Bowl" preview.
It had been a huge defensive struggle, so the Bears called a TD in the left corner of the end zone. Rex threw a TD ball, but Berrian did not run a TD route. It was picked off. Troy Aikman immediately pointed out that it wasn't Rex's fault. It was Grossman's only pick of the day, but it sent everything in a downward spiral. Not only for the game, but for the season, Rex's confidence, and unfortunately Grossman's career likely.

In fact, the Bear receivers were awful all year long. Especially when Rex was in there. They made the occasional bail-out spectacular catch, but didn't convert the easy chances consistently. Simply put, they didn't help out Grossman at all. Key drops repeatedly when he was starting to find his niche. It killed him over and over and over. You can hide a maybe-mediocre quarterback if you have reliable receivers. The Bears did not.

You can also hide a mediocre quarterback with a good offensive line. The Bears were not good on the O-line. At all. Nor was their running game much of an option.

And let's not forget the Bears traded their best offensive player by a long shot. Thomas Jones was actually the Bears' leading receiver two years ago. Rex had grown to really depend on him in the passing game. At the time I was in favor of the Jones trade in order to go with the much younger Cedric Benson. Then I saw how unreliable Benson was in the passing game.

I don't blame Benson for the Bears' lack of running game. I do, however, think his absolute incompetency in the passing game destroyed Rex and the Bears' offense.
I think it speaks volumes that the three times the Bears' offense looked good this year, they had thrown away their game plan. The final drive to beat Philly when Brian Griese's headset wasn't working. The hurry-up mode in the comeback against Denver where Rex called his own shots and engineered three clutch drives. And the beginning of the Giants game this year when they went no-huddle and Rex was extremely efficient.

That tells me something about the offensive coordinating and the overall game plan. It also tells me Rex is at his best when you turn him loose.

Unfortunately, I'm afraid another team is going to find that out before the Bears do.