Football Friday from On Her Game - It's Time for the Bears to Use the Franchise Tag

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This post for Football Friday for On Her Game was my first post in a number of weeks. The game following Thanksgiving against the Vikings really tested my Bears "fandom,"  but then the team came back strong against the Cowboys scoring on every drive before taking a knee on the final play. While neither team had a defense to speak of, for once the Bears offense scored more points than their opponents. Who do they think they are the Manning-Led Colts of old?!

So here’s a new one, the Chicago Bears may have a controversial decision to make at the QUARTERBACK position for next season. Who would have ever thought it? Not this long-time Bears fan who at the beginning of Josh McCown’s time as the starter compared the position to a Merry-Go-Round  going so far as to say, where it stops nobody knows. If I knew when I wrote that post that McCown would be this week’s (or any week for that matter), NFC Offensive Player of the Week with, 348 passing yards, four passing touchdowns, one rushing TD, and a 141.9 QB  rating, I would have bitten my tongue!

Larry Mayer of the Chicago Bears News reported that, “McCown became the first Bears quarterback to account for five touchdowns in a game since Jack Concannon in 1972…”

In McCown’s fourth straight start following multiple injuries to Jay Cutler, McCown has a passer rating that ranks third in the NFL behind the Eagles’ Nick Foles and the Broncos’ Peyton Manning. When was the last time that a Bears quarterback was linked in a sentence with Peyton Manning that did not relate to Super Bowl XLI?

So rather than a Merry-Go-Round at the quarterback position, Marc Trestman may find himself in something of a quarterback quagmire. First, who starts on Sunday against Cleveland if Cutler is cleared to play, next what about the balance of this season since a playoff spot is still not out of the realm of possibility; and finally, what about next season? Trestman has been adamant that Cutler is the starting quarterback, but how can one argue with the success that the veteran McCown has had with this offense? As Jon Gruden said on the Monday Night Football broadcast after McCown flung himself over multiple Cowboys defenders for the rushing touchdown, “Don’t tell me this guy is a back-up quarterback, he just laid himself out there for this team!”

In my (not always so humble) opinion, enter the franchise tag option for Jay Cutler. Here I go, spending the Bears’ money again. Wikipedia states, “In the National Football League, the franchise tag is a designation a team may apply to one player scheduled to become an unrestricted free agent. The tag binds the player to the team for one year if certain conditions are met. It has been designed to reduce player movement (often to bigger markets) which is often evidenced in other major pro sports leagues. Usually reserved for players of great skill or of high importance to the team, a franchise tag allows a team's general manager the privilege of strategically retaining valuable free-agent players while seeking talent through the NFL draft or other acquisitions without exceeding the League's salary cap.”

While the Chicago media is clamoring for a longer term for Cutler because the franchise tag option would cost more money (a one-year contract for an amount no less than the average of the top five salaries at the player's position) as the Bears have a number of players to sign. Plus this would allow the Bears to look at the 2014 Draft for a quarterback of the future. Um, do they not remember players like Cade McNown, Rex Grossman, Curtis Enis, Rashann Salaam, etc. The Bears have not had the greatest history of picking offensive players in first couple rounds of the draft.

Before you tell me that I should give this new management and coaching staff an opportunity, what is wrong with keeping both McCown and Cutler for the immediate future, and taking the next couple years to wait for the right quarterback to come out of college? I am not sold on this year’s draft class of quarterbacks, but it could also be said I don’t watch enough college football to form such an opinion.

What the potential quarterback battle boils down for me is that in all this time Cutler has never become the player that I was so excited to have sign with the Bears. Although he seems to have lost the smirk that drove me crazy for multiple seasons, McCown has a strong arm with a good head on his shoulders, not to mention the maturity level of a veteran that Cutler has never exuded. I understand that McCown is a journey-man who is not the future of any franchise, but why should he not finish his career in Chicago? The franchise tag, while costing more money, would not tie the Bears to Cutler for an extended period of time unless they want him to be the quarterback to lead them to the promised land (aka the post-season). This is one of the most important decisions that General Manager Phil Emery is going to make in his tenure with the Bears – let’s only hope it turns out better than how the Urlacher situation turned out.

Regardless of whether you agree with my assessment of how to handle Cutler, I trust you can concede that Josh McCown has played hard enough to deserve some serious consideration! Seriously, did you see that rushing touchdown?