Worst Quarterbacks in Chicago Bears History

Today, we're starting off a bit of a new series to kind of help kill the offseason blues. And if you hate topics like these, just take a deep breath and repeat to your self in a soft, Morgan Freeman-like voice "There's only a couple months until training camp..."

Now, most frequently, we look for the best of something, what's likely to improve, how things can improve - hell, we've even done tournaments of non-Chicago-Bears bears. But the point here, we love looking up at this time in the offseason. We're looking for things to make the Bears go 19-0 in the 2013-14 season and bring home the Lombardi Trophy for the first time since that 1985 sesaon.

Today, throw that out the window. We're thinking more "bottom-of-the-barrel" type stuff. The worst players to suit up for the Bears. And we're starting with a position that's got a fair amount of no shortage of candidates. Now, I could probably just toss up the Bears' career passing list and call it a day, but I was told I had to pick three. Also, we're limiting this to the Super Bowl era.

By the way, if you can name the passer, out of anybody, with the fewest passing yards in team history, you get a peppermint. Without scrolling to the bottom of the link above.

There are plenty of names and bad quarterbacks to come through, but we did lay out some ground rules - the player had to at least have some significant time starting (intended to be the year's starting quarterback, say), bad play as a Bear only, that sort of thing. So that left out the entirety of 2004 even though Jonathan Quinn, Henry Burris and Chad Hutchinson were there, and Caleb Hanie's four starts didn't quite make the cut either. Not to mention Craig Krenzel or Todd Collins.

3) Gary Huff

I'll grant Huff goes before my time, but glancing through PFR, Huff's years and numbers caught my eye. Seeing his 1974 line of 6 TDs with 17 INTs made me chuckle a bit; kind of reminds me of the last time I played Madden Ultimate Team. (Next time, I guess I'll just call it "pulling a Huff.") And his quarterback rating isn't much to write home about. I know the passing game was much different in the 70s, but numbers like that pretty much call it.

2) Bobby Douglass

By the same token, I never saw Douglass play, but by the same token I have to look at the numbers and wonder how he continued to maintain a starting quarterback spot. One of his seasons as a Bear had more touchdowns thrown than interceptions (4 to 3). In 1971 he had 5 touchdowns... and 15 interceptions. His career as a Bear spans 30 touchdowns and 51 interceptions, with a 42% completion percentage. His highest as a Bear, 46.6%, didn't even make the qualifying leaders in 1973, but if it had, it still wouldn't have cracked into the list that did qualify (14 attempts per game played). As is, over everybody, it was 46th out of 85 players that threw a pass.

1) Cade McNown

McCown only started 15 (!) of his 25 (!!) games and two years as a Bears first round pick (!!!), and he's got the 23rd most passing yards in Bears history (...). So even with the qualifiers above, that has to solidify his spot (and it also says plenty of unfortunate things about the Bears' quarterbacking woes). As bad as Bears quarterbacking has been (and it's been bad), I don't know how you leave off someone that was so heavily invested in, and then turned into... that.

What do you think, WCG? Who are your three worst Bears quarterbacks of the Super Bowl era?