Sifting Through the Smokescreen: Bears Late-Round QB Interests

One of the most intriguing times of the year for NFL fans is Smokescreen Season, when teams start planting little seeds about players they are high on, positions they'll address, and what their drafting philosophy will be. The Smokescreen Season never really ends, but it does reach maximum velocity in the couple weeks before the Draft.

Yesterday, exactly one week before the Draft, Bears General Manager Jerry Angelo decided to give a press conference to discuss this year's Bears draft. I wonder what his truth:fiction ratio was regarding late-round QB harvesting...

We can probably go ahead and believe him when he stated that the team will again look to draft a late-round QB project, despite Dan Lefevour in last year's Draft not working out.

After all, consider some Super Bowl QBs who were drafted in late rounds:

Bart Starr (17th round), Johnny Unitas (9th), Roger Staubach (10th), Joe Theismann (4th), Steve Grogan (5th), Mark Rypien (6th), Stan Humpries (6th), Tom Brady (6th), Brad Johnson (9th), Matt Hasselbeck (6th)... there are more, but you get the idea. Oh, and we can't forget Kurt Warner either, who was never drafted in the first place.

Suffice it to say, drafting a project QB in later rounds is not a bad idea at all...

For this edition of Sifting Through the Smokescreen, we give Angelo the benefit of the doubt, and think he's telling the truth.

What late-round QB prospects intrigue you the most?

Stay tuned for more Smokescreen Analysis, coming soon!