Chicago Bears: History of mediocre quarterbacks has a simple fix

The best Chicago Bears quarterbacks of all time

Unfortunately for Chicago, the best all-time quarterbacks list does nothing to prove how strong the position has been. Rather, it does the exact opposite. The top guy in Chicago is Sid Luckman, a vastly underrated leader from the 1940s. He could be considered as a top ten guy of all time by some metrics and is a bright spot on a dark canvas for the Bears.

But fast forward to today and the Bears have yet to top a player who threw barely over 50% with almost as many interceptions as touchdowns. Obviously, it was another time, but most franchises have had a guy in recent years who put up undeniably great numbers.

To find the next best guy in Chicago, you’ll have to fast forward nearly a half-century to the ’85 Bears with Jim McMahon. McMahon only made a single Pro Bowl and isn’t even considered a top ten quarterback of that decade.

Chicago wouldn’t see another Pro Bowl quarterback until 2018 when Mitch Trubisky was honored with this selection as a replacement for Jared Goff, who was on his way to the Super Bowl. By this metric, Trubisky could be considered the best quarterback since McMahon. But he’s not; he’s largely considered to be the biggest draft bust in Bears history.

Trubisky represents Bear quarterbacks to a tee: guys who everybody hates that just seem to stick around too long. You’ll find the perfect example of this is the guy who would likely round out the top three: Jay Cutler. During his eight-year stint, he essentially accomplished nothing. He was a placeholder on a team that was constantly shuffling players and staff.

If you continue looking through the list, you’ll find names like Kyle Orton, Jim Harbaugh, Rex Grossman, and Josh McCown, none of whom were franchise quarterbacks by any stretch of the imagination.