Nate Tice said the Chicago Bears planned to draft Russell Wilson in 2012
two surefire topics Chicago Bears fans have no interest in discussing: (1) whiffed “what if” scenarios and hypotheticals from this past decade, and (2) anything that significantly devalues Mitchell Trubisky.
Sorry to potentially ruin your Wednesday morning; both are in play in this article.
On yesterday’s edition of The Athletic’s Hoge and Jahns Podcast, Nate Tice, the son of former Bears offensive coordinator Mike Tice, and The Athletic radio voice dropped as atomic a bomb as it gets in theoreticals. In discussing Russell Wilson and his career at The University of Wisconsin, he made mention that the Chicago Bears planned to snag the six-time Pro Bowler during the 2012 NFL Draft.
"“My dad loved him. He wanted to draft him in the fourth-round, and that is a bonafide fact. You can find the Sports Illustrated article if you don’t believe me.Fourth round, Bears were taking Russell Wilson. You get to hang that over your head. He loved him, cause he saw what we saw. He watched every game. He was like ‘Oh, we can wait until the fourth-round to get him.”"
The Seahawks were gift wrapped Wilson with the 75th pick, four spots ahead of the Bears, who took … Brandon Hardin in the third round.
As soon as you finish twitching, can you at least name the two players the Bears selected in earlier rounds, instead of Wilson?
Alshon Jeffery in the second round. And Shea McClellin in the first round.
Hindsight knows no wrongs, but, had the Bears somehow stumbled into Wilson and Jeffery in the same Draft — perhaps in successive rounds — we’re talking all-time great Draft detective work from the Bears front office.
As it stands today, Wilson has a Super Bowl champion, has never finished a season with a losing record, and someday projects to be enshrined in Canton. Some of his career numbers and accolades not only dwarf all-time Bears franchise passing records, but you have to put a Bear or two, or three together to match his resumé.
At some point, it likely crosses your mind: what happens with Jay Cutler? Does he groom Wilson? Would we even want that from Cutler at that point in his career? Would he have been traded?
Cutler’s legacy had somewhat soured during the back-half of his career, and the sweet nothings whispered about how much potential he had were washed away with fruitless, Playoff-less seasons by 2012. Perhaps he gets a chance to rewrite his own legacy under different circumstances.
In the meantime, Tice, as well as Adam Hoge and Adam Jahns provides us with tons to think about before Sunday’s game. Assuming you aren’t fantasizing over the idea of an offense centered around Russell Wilson, Matt Forte, Brandon Marshall, Alshon Jeffery, and an elite defensive core, the rest of the podcast can be found here.