Chicago Bears: These quarterbacks have made us who we are

Oh, Rex.

Stewart was really just a place-holder for Grossman, who was drafted the same year. He came with some baggage, in that he was something of a wild child at Florida. If only that were the extent of the problems.

He started the last three games of his rookie year. He didn’t make us puke, which was enough after the Kordell experience. He started the first three games of the next season, Lovie Smith’s first, and at least flashed what the Bears saw in him. Then he blew out his knee on the Metrodome turf (that place was the gift that just kept on giving) and didn’t play again that season. He broke his ankle the following preseason. So whatever mobility he might have had was gone with two major leg injuries.

The 2006 season though…the dude was honestly an MVP candidate through the season’s first half. I’m not even joking. And then when the offensive line started to break down, and teams figured out that Rex’s reaction to pressure was to either:

A) Run straight backwards even though he was slow, B) Throw it as far as he could downfield even though he couldn’t see what was there, or C) Both.

What he did have, which the gaggle of other slow quarterbacks the Bears have hocked up over three decades, was a genuine NFL arm to make this ridiculousness work, like, one out of three times. If they could have put Rex’s arm on Kordell’s feet…well, you would have Jay Cutler but let’s not do that yet.

Still, he was enough to get the Bears to a Super Bowl, which only one other guy managed. And then he proceeded to put forth maybe the worst Super Bowl performance of any quarterback — ever.

Bears fans never forgave him.

But when I tell you that first injury proceeded to make for the most ridiculous Bears quarterback carousal ever, you’ll probably scoff. Buckle up, friend…