Rex in Retrospect

I'm well aware that any sports fans, let alone NFL fans, particularly let alone Bears fans, have been inundated with articles about the Bears quarterback situation over the past year. Ever since Rex Grossman played like Cade McNown against the Arizona Cardinals last season, an endless barrage of complaints and criticisms have been levied at both Rex and the organization which employed him; some of it valid criticism, some unnecessary personal attacks on him, but mostly uneducated over-reaction, unaccompanied by any logic or thoughtful reflection on what's really going on here. I will attempt to provide some of the latter, and avoid the former.

I have always been a fan of Rex Grossman, dating back to 2001 & 2002 when he was a Florida Gator. While I was never a big college football fan (always preferred Sunday football), I went to college with a lot of guys who were, and frankly it's not a bad diversion for slow, Fall Saturday afternoons when you're hanging out in small overcrowded dorm rooms with a bunch of hungover guys killing time before the next party. And during those 2 seasons, when I watched the most college football of my life, he was the best player in the country, period.

What I liked best about him is he was absolutely fearless...he had that John Elway/Brett Favre way of sliding around the pocket, narrowly avoiding the pass rush, and hitting receivers on the money, in-stride 40 yards downfield on off-balance throws. I still remember some of his highlight tapes where he would be moving to his left under pressure, and on a dime just spun around and lasered a ball right into the hands of a fairly well-covered receiver for a 50+ yard touchdown.

I thought he would be just a perfect QB for the Bears, and so did every other Bear fan I knew who followed college football. He had poise, elusiveness, a cannon arm, accuracy, leadership, everything we had been lacking at the QB position...pretty much forever. Ron Wolf, the architect who built those damn good Packer teams of the 1990s, said Grossman was the closest thing to Brett Favre he had ever seen in his years of scouting and evaluating talent.

When Spurrier let Fla. for the Redskins, and Ron Zook took over, the Fla. offense predictably declined, but still remained one of the better offenses in the country. This took Grossman from a Heisman runner-up, potential top 5 pick, to a mid to low first round pick. I was absolutely thrilled when he was still on the board at #23 in the 2003 draft, and seeing the Bears draft him was the happiest I've ever been on draft day. I really believed the position would be set for 12 years, and we'd have an all-pro QB who would keep us competitive year-in and year-out, and give us multiple opportunities to play in a Super Bowl.

So fast forward four and a half years....the Bears are 1-3 coming off a Super Bowl loss, Grossman is on the bench after 3 horrendous games, following a horrendous Super Bowl, following a solid playoff run, following the most up and down season I have ever seen from one quarterback. He had literally the best and worst games I've ever seen a quarterback play, all within the same 4 month period. Which all begs the question...what happened?

I've spent a TON of time thinking about this, and it's a tough pill to swallow. I obsessively love the Bears, so I always want to see all of their players succeed. Throw in the fact that I thought this guy was a can't-miss lock in the draft, and I was thrilled when we picked him, and was fully confident in, & supportive of, him as our QB, that watching him fail this year has been the most disappointed I've ever felt regarding a player on this team.

I really believe the 2 leg injuries he had early on are what eventually doomed him. Coming off the bench at the end of his rookie year in 2003, and through those first couple games in 2004, he looked just like the guy who tore up the SEC in 2001-2002. He could make all the throws, wasn't afraid to move around, and gave his team a chance to score every time he dropped back to pass. He even injured his ACL on a play where he scrambled and dove for a touchdown, on the artificial turf of the Rollerdome.

After a long year of rehab, he came back in 2005, and promptly broke his ankle in the preseason. The Bears kept him around, and he came back on a wobbly ankle to play the last couple regular season games, as well as the playoff game against the Panthers.

I beleive that the combination of coming back & playing while his ankle was still in a recovering stage, and all the pressure of being labeled weak, soft, injury-prone, a bust, Glassman, Wrecks, etc. got to his head, and part of his focus shifted from being a great football player, to staying healthy. Just watch any tape of him prior to his ACL injury, and after his return from the ankle injury (since there really is no tape in between, I exclude this time period), and you will see 2 different quarterbacks. Before, he was fearless in the pocket, not afraid to shift around, take off running, or step up into the pocket & take a big hit, if that's what it took to get the ball into the receiver's hands. After, he never ran, rarely moved laterally or forward in the pocket, and would always backpedal and throw off his back foot when faced with pressure.

And based on watching Rex repeatedly make these seemingly fundamental, correctable mistakes over a year and a half of games, I can't come to any conclusion except that his instincts changed, as a result of his conscious effort to avoid injuries. Necessarily, deteriorating fundamentals and instinctual bad habits lead to turnovers. Anyone with any semblance of a football IQ knows that rushing throws, throwing off your back foot, or while back-pedaling, and throwing it up for grabs to avoid being hit, are all ingredients for interceptions: the problem which has doomed Rex's career as a Bear.

Put simply, his injuries took away his gutsy tendencies, and the lack of those tendencies destroyed his ability to make all the highlight reel plays that made him a star in the first place. When a QB is able to absorb a hit, or evade pressure, or step up in the pocket, he is able to take some risks and be successful. But when a QB is always backing up, and then trying to fit the ball in a tight place...they have no chance.

The key to Rex's early success was always the ability to make a play, regardless of the pressure around him. He was willing & able to do absolutely whatever it took to get himself into position with a good throwing lane. Now, he only succeeds when everything around him is perfect, and that simply isn't good enough. Rarely does a team have a good enough o-line, receiving corps, and running game, where the QB can always drop back, comfortably survey the field, and make a throw to an open receiver...and we all know the Bears are miles from that right now. Rex's physical & psychological inability to do everything necessary to make his own plays, is what cost him his job, and at this point I don't see him, or the Bears offense, making enough of a turn-around in 2007 to where his abilities will again be a good fit for what our offense needs.