The Chicago Bears and Denver Broncos will be forever linked thanks to the trade that brought quarterback Jay Cutler to Chicago. The comparisons between Cutler and, whichever quarterback Denver finally decides upon, will go on until Cutler finally hangs up his helmet and leaves the game with his multiple Super Bowl rings.
But after this weekend’s draft, a twist was thrown into the Bears/Broncos connection. The Broncos made a very bold move to jump ahead in the draft in order to select quarterback Tim Tebow.
Any football fan knows who Tim Tebow is. We have heard his story over and over again. The high character, God Blessing, guy who may be the best college football player ever, but might be a bust in the NFL. Yeah, that guy. The guy who could play ever position on the football field at the next level, except quarterback, but was drafted much higher than expected to play quarterback. That’s the guy.
Well, at no fault of our own, the Chicago Bears will now be forever linked to that guy.
The incumbent starter for the Broncos is former Bear Kyle Orton. Though very serviceable and a great teammate, Orton does not seem like the type to lead his team to the Promised Land. Maybe that’s why the Broncos head coach Josh McDaniels made a trade this off-season to acquire Brady Quinn from the Cleveland Browns. Even after making the trade for Quinn, the Broncos felt that Tebow was the arm of the future and could not pass on his services in the draft.
McDaniels is known as a great offensive mind and is said to work wonders with young quarterbacks. Tom Brady and Matt Cassel have both worked under him and have gone on to do great things. Cassel not so much, but his contract alone from the Kansas City Chiefs has to speak for something.
The one young gun slinger that McDaniels did not get the luxury to work with is Cutler. Their relationship was strained from the beginning when McDaniels tried to get rid of his Pro Bowl quarterback for ‘flash in the pan’ Cassel. McDaniels ended up with neither Cutler nor Cassel, and the Bears reaped the benefits.
McDaniels has always been portrayed as a person whose ego is bigger than his stature. Napoleon Complex if you will. Never before has this been more the case than draft day 2010. When everyone says Tebow is a project and may not be able to play QB at the professional level, here comes McDaniels to prove how great he is as a QB molder. He wants to show anyone who will watch that he can take this QB mechanics nightmare and make him the next John Elway.
So here we are, one year after the Cutler trade and another wrinkle to the story. We always knew that Cutler and McDaniels would forever be linked, but then enters Tim Tebow.
Tebow’s QB maturation and NFL career will be watched under a microscope. His every throw and run nitpicked ad nauseum. And we here in Chicago, will have to hear every word of it.
Cutler is entrenched as the Bears starter; Tebow may take a couple of years to become the Broncos main man. Maybe Tebow does not progress into an elite NFL quarterback, or if he does, he does it somewhere besides Denver. God willing.