Who will fill the void behind Cutler on Bears’ depth chart?

By Edward Kensik  |   Monday, August 10, 2009  |  Comments( 0 )

Chicago Bears
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All the talk in the second week of the Chicago Bears training camp has been what the team will do with Jay Cutler’s contract especially with Eli Manning’s recent contract signing that put the NFL quarterback contracts at another level.

But while the love affair continues between the Bears fans in Bourbonnais and the new Chicago quarterback, fans should know who is behind Cutler with a chance of always having a worst case scenario like last year when Tom Brady went down and Matt Cassel took over in New England.

Unlike New England, Chicago does not have the targets like the Patriots had last year in Randy Moss and Wes Welker. Also, the Bears currently do not have the backups of the quality of Cassel. If that unfortunate incident occurs, the Bears fans might be longing for the days of Kyle Orton/Rex Grossman combination.

Both of the 2009 Chicago backups have very little NFL background. I understand that Cassel also had very little NFL experience, but I would be shocked that the current Bears backups, Caleb Hanie or Brett Basanez will jettison into the thoughts of NFL fans like Cassel did.


Hanie is in his second season with the Bears and peaked fans interest during one of the exhibition games last season, but then saw zero snaps during the 2008 season.
The other backup has a local flavor. Basanez is not only a former Northwestern University quarterback, but also an Arlington Heights, Ill. native who played for St. Viator High School in that same town. Basanez has though only completed only 6 of 11 passes for Carolina during the 2006-07 season for 56 yards and one interception while running once for two yards.

"I don't think he (Hanie) or I are worried about, 'All right, who's going to be No. 2 and who's going to be No. 3?’” Basanez told the Daily Herald. “We want to prove to them that we can both do it and we're helping each other out. He's a great guy and we both want to be here." Despite the hometown turf on his side, Basanez though would still feel the wrath of the Bears fans if he were perched in the starting quarterback spot and the team languished with a couple of losses.

Chicago Bears general manager Jerry Angelo should know from the recent past about quarterback injuries as he saw Rex Grossman go down a couple of times in the last few years and that led to Kyle Orton, who did a yeoman’s job. But if the team wants to get to the playoffs or the Super Bowl, they will not get there with Basanez or Hanie.

The Bears could wait until the last cut down date of Sept. 5 to pluck one of the veteran signal callers that are expected to be released, but that does not give that veteran quarterback much time to inhale the team playbook. But they really need to get a veteran quarterback in camp before that time.

Hanie and Basanez can be a very good third string quarterback that can be used for blowouts and get their work that way, but if Cutler is down for any period of time can they really lead the Bears to enough victories to get to the playoffs?

Not only will the Bears be watching how Cutler works with his wide receivers, but also how Hanie and Basanez and Hanie perform in the preseason starting with the Sept 15th game in Buffalo. Even if the pair is admirable in the exhibition games, the Bears will be crossing their fingers that Cutler does not get injured and they have to go with one of the two.

For those optimistic fans, maybe Basanez or Hanie will become the new Tony Romo, a quarterback that comes out of nowhere to become a very good quarterback (not counting his postseason experience). Only time will tell, but the last thing that the Bears fans and Chicago management want to happen is go through a rerun of 2004 when they brought out the likes of Jonathan Quinn, Craig Krenzel and Chad Hutchinson after Grossman went down.
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