Bears Blitz

Published by Jake Perper on December 2, 2011
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Chicago Bears

Donovan McNabb was waived by the Vikings, so will he get another shot this season to play football?

Teams in need of a quarterback would be wise to bring in the six-time Pro Bowler, whose been to five NFC championships and one Super Bowl in his 13 NFL seasons.

The experience would be brought with him.

In 167 career games, McNabb has posted a passer rating of 85.6, while throwing for over 37,000 yards, 234 touchdowns and 117 interceptions.

He has also rushed for almost 3,500 yards and 29 touchdowns.

Despite struggling at times last season with Washington and not really playing great this season with Minnesota, McNabb is an upgrade over the Bears current backups.

Josh McCown was brought in last week for the veteran minimum for around $800,000 and Nathan Enderle is a rookie from Idaho, who has yet to really show anything.

The word on McCown this week in practice is he has shown significant signs of rust.

That shouldn’t be a shocker considering he hasn’t thrown a regular-season pass since 2009.

McNabb on the other hand started six games this season and was still getting reps in practice likely being a mentor for rookie Christian Ponder.

McNabb threw for 1,026 yards, four touchdowns and two interceptions in six starts with the Vikings, who acquired him this offseason.

He put together a decent game against the Bears back in Week 6, when he completed 19-of-24 passes for 177 yards, but was replaced by the rookie Ponder after the game became out of hand.

I’m sure McNabb would be pleased to play in his hometown of Chicago, where he has had some success in the past.

At age 35 he isn’t the same quarterback he used to be, but off the bench he would be a nice option to have as insurance.

He would also be able to serve as another mentor to Hanie.

McNabb was once a great scrambler and Hanie has potential to have success in that area, so he could help him develop his scrambling abilities.

Don’t be shocked if the Bears pick McNabb up soon. The 21st team on the waiver priority list, the Cowboys seem to have slight interest, but he could fall to the Bears at 24.

The team who picks up McNabb, would owe him roughly $1.5 million for the remainder of the season.

The Bears were willing to pay the $2.6 million remaining on Orton’s contract, so money wouldn’t be a problem if they decided to scoop up McNabb.

McNabb would be an instant upgrade over McCown for the Bears because of experience.

McCown may know Mike Martz’s offense, but McNabb would bring more leadership to this Bears offense.

Bears head coach Lovie Smith didn’t go into much detail about the possibility of bringing McNabb in to backup Hanie.

“He’s been a great player in the league,” Smith said. “But I don’t speculate on anything else besides that.”

Will the Bears pull the trigger on McNabb or will they stick with the clearly less-talented Josh McCown?

Jake Perper is the owner and head writer for Bearsbacker.com. He is also the Chicago Bears writer for NFLTouchdown.com. Follow him on Twitter, @Bearsbacker and on Facebook for up to the minute news about the Bears.

Read more Chicago Bears news on BleacherReport.com