Chicago Bears Free Agency Preview Part I: 2017 Offensive Free Agents

The Bears should have quite a bit of concern with their backup quarterbacks and their contracts this off-season.  Every single quarterback on the Bear’s current roster, except for Jay Cutler, will be out of their contract in 2017.  The caveat to this is that Connor Shaw is an exclusive rights free agent and the Bears will have the first shot at him.

Otherwise, current starter Matt Barkley, former starter Brian Hoyer and backup David Fales will either need to be re-signed or allowed to walk.

One of the decisions here could be easy.  It’s unlikely that the Bears will retain Fales unless they want an additional “arm” in training camp.  It’s likely that Chicago would bring four quarterbacks into camp but maybe that could even be a stretch.  I would consider Fales to be the odd man out.

Now let’s throw a wrench into this.  Let’s say that the team allows Cutler to walk.  Some interesting possibilities could grow out of that.  One possibility is that the Bears could draft a quarterback to be the starter either right away or a little further down the road (let him compete in training camp).  If the Bears choose to start the rookie, then there will be a need for a high-quality backup.  They could pull that backup out of the group of second tier quarterbacks they have now.

Another scenario is that the Bears may feel that they have someone who could start among the three remaining quarterbacks they have.  Perhaps they could have one of these guys start while they develop a rookie?  Could Hoyer, Barkley or Shaw fill the bill as a starter?

You have a promising talent in Shaw but he is somewhat of an unknown.  He will be fully healed and ready to go so no worries there.  The Bears could easily bring him back and give him a shot.

Hoyer proved himself to be fine game manager who didn’t make a lot of mistakes.  But Hoyer wasn’t the type of quarterback that would bring you back from a big deficit and he isn’t a gunslinger.  Some of this can be blamed on the coaching staff putting the reigns on him.  Another issue may have been his not being familiar with the receivers or the offense overall.

It would have been interesting seeing how he could have progressed through the season but the injury bug swept in and took him away.  There will be no question that he will be ready for training camp this coming summer.  But will the Bears bring him back?

Finally, there is Barkley who has been playing well since taking over a few weeks ago.  Unless he completely collapses over the last two games of the season, it is nearly a sure thing that the Bears would bring him back.  He’s done a lot to prove he could be an asset at the quarterback position and you can bet the Bears have liked what they have seen out of him so far.  We will see more of Barkley in training camp.

So, who re-signs with the Bears and who doesn’t?  Fales will go while Shaw, Hoyer and Barkley stay.  It will be an interesting training camp next season at the quarterback position.