Is Josh McCown too popular for the Chicago Bears?

Early this morning on the Mully and Hanley Show on WSCR 670 The Score in Chicago, Mike Mulligan speculated that Josh McCown may not be in the plans for the Chicago Bears. Actually he more than speculated, he flat out said that the Bears would allow McCown to leave via free agency.

As a long time Chicago Sun Times columnist and Chicago sports radio personality, Mulligan obviously has people that he can lean on for inside information about the Bears. Mully is predicting that if Chicago general manager Phil Emery does offer McCown a contract, that it will be a team friendly take it or leave it type offer. With so much money tied up into starter Jay Cutler, the Bears don't want to add more big money to the position.

Which makes some sense. Each team has an idea of how much money they allocate to each position on the team, and if they feel another few million is too much for a backup, then so be it.

But Mulligan is hearing that there may be more to a possible McCown exit than simply money.

This morning Mulligan talked about how popular McCown has become in the city, and how his popularity eclipsed the man the franchise just made the highest paid Bear in history. He said that Emery may want to rid his team of that potential distraction.

Is Bears management really worried about Chicago's fondness for the #2 QB, and how it might play with the psyche of Jay Cutler?

I hope that's not the case.

What do you guys think? Do you believe there's anything to Mulligan's prediction?