Which Bears players would thrive on other teams?

While we’re sitting and collectively waiting for the Chicago Bears to commence training camp and thus start the path to the 2016 NFL season we’re stuck just wasting time, kicking around silly hypotheticals.

So today, I thought: Which Bears players would thrive on other teams?

There are plenty of systems and coaches around the league that seem to get the most out of their players and there are a lot of players that maybe great on the Bears but you wonder; if the Bears had that coach or system, what could they be?

Let’s play the offseason hypothetical game and put Bears players on to other teams and imagine what they’d be like.

For this exercise we will only work with current players. And also, don’t just take some other system or coach and put them on the Bears; consider other teams’ supporting casts as well.

I would love to see how Jay Cutler would perform on the Arizona Cardinals. Many Bears fans continue to lament that former GM Phil Emery said “no thanks” to Bruce Arians back in 2013 and instead handed the team over to Marc Trestman.

Arians was reported to have been excited about the idea of working with Cutler. Many an offensive coach has been reported to say the same thing but it’s worth wondering with Cutler.

Arians’ pass-happy system has gotten great play out of QBs that have been known to be turnover prone at certain points of their career such as Ben Rothlisberger and Carson Palmer. The idea of seeing Cutler sling it to Michael Floyd and Larry Fitzgerald is fun to think about. I wonder if he could break the 4,000-yard threshold were he to play in the desert.

There are plenty of teams around the league that would like to have Kyle Long’s help at guard (or heck, even tackle given how he played out-of-position last season) but the team I’d be curious to see him on is the Indianapolis Colts.

The Colts offensive line has struggled for several years and Long would help shore up Andrew Luck’s right side and help open lanes for the team’s non-existent run game.

I am very glad that Pernell McPhee is a Chicago Bear and he’s quickly become a fan favorite defensive player but I wonder what he could do playing in Seattle for Pete Carroll? The Seahawks defense has been dominant for a few seasons and while he’s only played in 3-4 systems, I believe his physical dominance could transition to a 4-3. He’s also built similarly (McPhee is 6’2” 274 lbs) to Seattle’s current DEs Michael Bennett (6’4” 271 lbs) and Cliff Avril (6’3” 252 lbs).

I also wonder what Alshon Jeffery could do if he were paired with Cam Newton. Especially looking at last season when Kelvin Benjamin was out, Jeffery, who has a similar style to the Panthers wide out, would have been quite a red zone nightmare when matched with former Bear Greg Olsen.

Those are just the main ones that jumped out at me. Which teams do you think current Bears would fit well on?