NEWSLETTER
Did the Chicago Bears find their new quarterback, or did they get a fall-back plan in place while they had a chance?
ESPN’s Adam Schefter reports the Bears have signed Andy Dalton a one-year deal worth $10 million, with incentives that could earn Dalton $3 million more. Dalton popped up as an option earlier in the week after being on Chicago’s radar last offseason when the Bengals dangled him on the trade market. Then again late on Monday evening after Jameis Winston and Ryan Fitzpatrick signed elsewhere.
I’ll be curious to see what this contract looks like upon final construction. For instance, that Jameis Winston $12 million features a $1 million base salary, $4.5 million signing bonus, and has a cap hit under $2.5 million. I don’t think it would be a stretch to imagine the Bears following that type of contract structure, limiting the 2021 cap implications for a variety of obvious reasons.
As for the fit, it is my best guess that Dalton is basically the Bears’ fall-back plan. Should their more impactful pursuits elsewhere fail later on (i.e., no trade for Russell Wilson or Deshaun Watson, and no significant trade up in the draft for a top option), then Dalton competes with Nick Foles when camp opens up in July. It ain’t sexy, and it is unlikely to save any jobs. But, because it’s March 16, only the fall-back plan can be executed right now, and that’s Dalton. We’ve gotta hope that the Bears’ Plans 1A and 1B remain unchanged. Trades for a splash QB, while a long-shot, remain on the table. As does the option to trade up in the draft. None of this is to say they’ll make any of those options happen, of course (are you betting on it right now?). But the Bears signed a fall-back plan at a modest price when available.
That is all to say, *IN THEORY*, nothing of the Bears’ bigger picture plans changed today from where they were yesterday. They just have a fall-back option in place. Big, big emphasis on in theory.
Now we wait to see if the Bears can actually execute on a more impactful option from here, or if GM Ryan Pace just signed his last quarterback (of the offseason, and of his tenure with the Bears).
UPDATE: Sure enough, this tracks. Seahawks weren’t going to trade Wilson “at this time,” so Bears decided to grab the fall-back option for now when he was available:
Chicago made "a very aggressive pursuit" of Seahawks QB Russell Wilson, per sources, and the Bears were told that Seattle is not trading him at this time.
The Bears were one of four teams Wilson's agent named as a place of interest. Now Chicago has an agreement with Andy Dalton.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) March 16, 2021
Strictly speaking, a trade for Watson or Wilson later on remains a possibility. But it wasn’t happening today, so the Bears grabbed a quarterback. We may or may not like the QB they grabbed, though, and the Bears better be hoping they can pull off the bigger move later …
Brett Taylor contributed to this post.
