Rex Grossman is starting again for the Redskins. His first outing with them didn't go so well.

If you think we have problems in Chicago, try being a Washington Redskins fan.  Your team isn’t winning, you’ve suspended Albert Haynesworth and now you’re bring Sexy Rexy back.  ESPN reports that Donovan McNabb is going to be benched this week and ex-Bear Rex Grossman will be the starting QB for the Redskins against the Dallas Cowboys.  Rex is their quarterback.  But Sexy isn’t going to a Super Bowl this year, as the Redskins are already mathematically eliminated from the playoffs.  This moves seems to be an audition for Rex, who has potential to be the Redskins starter next year (to the amazement of all). 

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Donovan McNabb is headed to Washington in a surprising intra-divisional trade. (Photo: UPI)

The Washington Redskins have acquired quarterback Donovan McNabb from the Philadelphia Eagles for their 2010 2nd round pick (37th overall) and either a 3rd or 4th rounder in 2011.

When you compare that to what the Bears gave up to get Jay Cutler a year ago – Kyle Orton, their 2009 and 2010 1st round picks and a swap of their 2009 3rd for Denver’s 5th – it seems like the ‘Skins got a bargain deal.  Think the Eagles were desperate to move him?  It’s even more strange that they traded within their own division, so they’ll get to see him twice a year.

McNabb is 33 and his most productive years are likely behind him, but new Washington head coach Mike Shanahan and owner Daniel Snyder must be betting that they can put a Super Bowl run together with an aging backfield.

Why else would they get McNabb and every over-the-hill running back that’s on the open market?  Between Clinton Portis, Larry Johnson and Willie Parker, they’ve got more mileage than Jenna Jameson’s mattress (and with slightly less plastic surgery.  Have you seen her lately?  Even Ben Roethlisberger wouldn’t have anything to do with here.  Yikes!)

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R. Daniel Grossman, M.D., The Eye Center of Southern Indiana and father of Rex

As if a 5 interception night last Thursday wasn’t bad enough for Jay Cutler, now he’s getting an unlikely person coming to his defense – Dan Grossman.  Yup, Rex Grossman’s dad jumped to the beleaguered quarterback’s defense.  Here’s a snippet from Fred Mitchell’s piece:

“What’s amazing to me is, here we go again with Jay Cutler,” Grossman said. “He came in and he was going to be the franchise quarterback and lead the Bears. I heard some people say they were going to the Super Bowl this year. There was a lot of Cutler-mania going on in the preseason and all that. And here we are, back in the situation where … because the team is not really built around a passing game, he has struggled. I don’t really blame it on Jay Cutler.”

Here’s some more from Grossman, talking about the recent history of the quarterback position in Chicago:  (more…)

I love how they get a parting shot in at Rex Grossman.  Poor Rexy!  It’s a really interesting discussion that they have to ruin at the end by talking about the Giants being the most dangerous team in the NFC.  Puh-lease!  You thought the Bears had no receivers?  Aside from Jailbird Burress, name a Giants receiver?   They’ve got a solid running back in Brandon Jacobs who will be broken by Week 8 and $97 million dollar QB Eli Manning with no one to throw to.  Sure they have a decent defense, but as we Bears fans all know, that only gets you so far.

BEAR DOWN!!!

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Does Eli Manning's contract extension have Jay thinking big payday?

No one could have been happier for Eli Manning than Chicago Bears quarterback Jay Cutler.  Manning, the Super Bowl XLII-winning NY Giants QB just inked a 6-year $97.5 million contract extension.  Cutler’s 2009 $1 million salary essentially amounts to tip money compared to the roughly $15.3 mill that little Peyton will be pulling in next season. (more…)

KC Joyner is front and center at the Jay Cutler firing line once again; this time taking centerstage at The Fifth Down, the NY Times football blog penning a piece titled “Sorry, Bears Fans, Cutler Isn’t the Answer”.  Let me pull some of his gems from the post and address them one at a time:

Now I understand that fan scrutiny comes with the territory, so I don’t mind that, but what I don’t understand is why those fans are treating Cutler differently than they did either Grossman or Kyle Orton.

I guess the easy answer is because we haven’t actually seen him play a real game in the Bears orange and blue yet.  I know that all of the high brows on the east coast view Chicago as a bunch of SNL’s SuperFans, but give us some credit.  We may be loyal to a fault, but we’ll also take someone to task when it’s deserved.  I guarantee, if Cutler has a bad game, there will be people calling local radio shows for Caleb Hanie to get the nod at QB or wishing Kyle Orton was back here.  As Brett suggest in the Comments, let’s see Jay actually play a game with the Bears before we throw him under the bus.

Grossman was on fire during the first part of Chicago’s Super Bowl season, and yet as soon as he had the bad game against Miami, it seemed the entire city turned on him.

When a normal QB has a bad game, it’s all well and good.  When Grossman has a bad game, it’s historically bad.  Here’s Grossman’s stat line from that game against Miami, a 31-13 home loss:  18 out of 42 for 210 yards.  1 TD and 3 INT’s.  3 sacks for 21 yards with a lost fumble for a whopping 36.1 Passer Rating. This was the game where Grossman practically handed the ball to Jason Taylor because he claimed he didn’t see him.  Huh?  Check out the game recap and video summary of the game here.

I also don’t understand why there seems to be such excitement about Cutler. Yes, he threw for over 4,500 yards last year, but that was in large part because he put the ball up a whopping 616 times.

So Grossman put it up 42 times for 210 yards, yet Joyner’s article talks about how many times Cutler put it up to amass his bawdy yardage stats last year.  Pick a lane, KC!

The only reason I can come up with as to why Bears fans are reacting like this is that the quarterback position has been such a headache for them over the years that they will do just about anything to make it go away. If that means ignoring Cutler’s shortcomings so that at least one off-season goes by without having to wonder if their quarterback’s play will measure up, they’ll do it just for the temporary peace of mind. I do admire that kind of team passion and loyalty, but I’d admire it a bit more if it were done by hoping that Cutler could improve his game rather than by backing his mixed bag of performance history.

I don’t recall anyone ignoring Cutler’s shortcomings because last time I check, he didn’t play a game here yet.  I think we all agree we’d like to see Jay improve his game, just like we’d like to see everyone improve.  Let’s just see a real game to set the bar and go from there.

BEAR DOWN!!!

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If former coaches Mike Ditka and Tony Dungy aren’t dogging him, someone else is.  The bulls eye was squarely on Jay Cutler’s back as KC Joyner was stirring it up.  In a recent online chat, he fielded a number of Jay Cutler questions:

Alex (Chicago,IL)
How well do you think Jay Cutler will do with the Bears this year?

KC Joyner(4:10 PM)
I’ve said it many times and I’ll say it again – Cutler will make Bears fans remember Rex Grossman. He’ll make just as many crazy passes but won’t suffer the Grossman fate because Chicago’s fan base is so in love with him that they will forgive the nutty throws he makes in ways that they never forgave Grossman.

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The Bears’ draft pick and trade coffers are a bit depleted, so they might need to sweeten the pot to pull off a trade for Marshall.  Who could the Bears give up?  Denver had a woeful defense in ’08, so they could use some help on that side of the ball.  Would Brian Urlacher be on interest?  Nathan Vasher or Charles Tillman?  Not much to give up on the other side of the ball except maybe Devin Hester?  Would you be willing to give him up to land a talent like Marshall?   

In other news..

Rex Grossman avoided major embarrassment and signed to compete as the backup for the Texans.  Too bad he wasn’t named the starter – maybe Andre Johnson would want out of Houston.  As I tweeted last week, “Houston, you have a problem!  It’s Tex Rex!”

Plaxico Burress’ gun case has been postponed until September.   Latest word out there is that he is actively negotiating do sign a deal before training camp opens.  Lots of speculation still links the troubled receiver to the Bears, but nothing definitive yet.

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