Bears cut QB Jordan Palmer

Dennis Wierzbicki-USA TODAY Sports

The Bears continued to trim their roster towards the 75 man roster limit on Tuesday by releasing QB Jordan Palmer. I covered their first ten cuts earlier but cutting Jordan Palmer is definitely the surprise move of the day. I thought the backup QB battle would go down to the wire, but apparently Bears management has seen enough and declared Jimmy Clausen the winner and Jay Cutler’s backup for the 2014 season.

I think it was the right move. As I mentioned in my Winners & Losers post yesterday, Palmer just doesn’t seem to have the confidence and decisiveness necessary to lead the offense. He showed some flashes of competence during the preseason but his decision-making, release, and footwork were all noticeably slower than Clausen’s. Clausen also seemed to have a significant arm strength advantage as well.

So it’s official, Jimmy Clausen is the Bears backup QB this season. He has a good pedigree as a high 2nd round pick, but hasn’t thrown a pass in the NFL since 2010. I have faith in Marc Trestman’s ability to work with QBs after the job he did with Josh McCown last year, but I am still hoping that Jay Cutler can make it through the season without getting hurt. I’ve got a fantasy draft starting in 30 minutes, so I have to cut this short but I will be back with more updates on the Bears roster in a few hours!