Bears Blitz

Published by Alexander Crowe on June 17, 2012
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Chicago Bears

Jason Campbell is not going to be the starting quarterback for the Chicago Bears next season, unless starting quarterback Jay Cutler goes down with another season-ending injury.

So why did Phil Emery and the Chicago Bears staff go out and sign Campbell to play on their squad?

The answer lies in the disaster train wreck of a season that was the Chicago Bears in 2011. Campbell can prevent that collapse from happening again by making the team more versatile, by giving the Bears an edge that other teams don’t have, and most importantly, by helping the Chicago Bears to win games any way he can.

The Bears did not have an average team last year, despite their 8-8 record and third place finish in the division. Everyone and his mother knows how well the team was playing when starting quarterback Jay Cutler was healthy and starting running back Matt Forte was healthy and happy.

After Cutler went down, however, there was a different looking team based in Chicago. The offensive system was too complected for an incoming quarterback to learn, and after Caleb Hanie wasn’t playing up to expectation, the team scrambled to go find a new quarterback who at least somewhat knew the system that Mike Martz was running. It was, in a sense, a complete disaster, and a massive collapse to 8-8 after starting out 7-3 on the year.

Bringing in Jason Campbell (along with getting rid of Martz) allows the Bears some depth and versatility, along with options on offense. While former first-round draft pick, Jason Campbell may not have been a Pro-Bowl quarterback in his day, he still has experience and brings that experience to the table when practicing with the Bears.

Not only does it give the Bears some protection in case of another horrific freak injury to Cutler (who landed on his thumb wrong, and broke it so bad that it required surgery), but it also allows the Bears to gain an edge over opponents that some other teams don’t have—two experienced veteran players behind the center. Campbell, while not the best of the best at the quarterback position in the NFL, still has experience. He threw for over 14,000 yards in six seasons with the Raiders and Redskins, while throwing for 74 touchdowns.

Also, with all of the news coming out about the Saints bounty scandal, teams need to be more protective of their players. These kinds of things do happen in the NFL, and the best way to combat it is by stacking your team so that if teams and players do decide to play dirty, your team has a backup who is experienced and ready to go.

Phil Emery gets it, and he realized (along with every other Bears fan last season) that the Bears needed a backup quarterback who was experienced in the NFL because if something were to happen, they can’t be stuck in the mud like they were last season.

Nobody expects Jason Campbell to be the starter in Chicago while Jay Cutler is healthy. Campbell may not even see the field at all this season; however, he is one of the best offseason acquisitions the Bears made this year.

With him behind Cutler, the team no longer needs to worry about what happens if the star in Chicago goes down, because they can just keep right on moving towards a division title and even higher.

There are classic sayings everyone has heard, such as “learn from your mistakes” and “you can’t change your past, but you can change the future. “There were some mistakes made in Chicago in the past; however, the team is building towards a bright new future, one that begins with Jason Campbell behind Jay Cutler.

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