The Bernstein Brief: Bears Biding Time At QB
By Dan Bernstein--
CBSChicago.com senior columnist
(CBS) It's easy to read too much into the Bears' signing of Mark Sanchez as a backup quarterback, so let's do so.
General manager Ryan Pace has been misquoted often regarding his philosophy on the position. He didn't say two years ago that he wanted to draft one every year, just that, "I think it's a good idea to add a quarterback every year."
"Add," not "draft," and add he has with Mike Glennon and now Sanchez to go along with Connor Shaw, keeping open the possibility of using a second-day pick on another developmental player. Most observers see the quarterback room as all but set and that this is a tipping of the Bears' hand that they won't be pursuing the heir apparent in this class, which may tell us that the balance of power in the front office currently tips toward John Fox.
The older coach is desperate to win games now rather than be saddled with the responsibility of cultivating talent for the future, and he has always been more comfortable trusting defense and a running game to mitigate volatility. He wants to play close games, apparently because he trusts his strategic decision-making and clock management more than the rest of us do.
Sanchez himself is easy to lampoon because he's older and bad and owns one of the greatest on-field bloopers in video history, but in this he's more symbol than anything, just possible evidence that the Bears remain content with a temporary fix at the single most important individual position in sports.
Dan Bernstein is a co-host of 670 The Score's "Bernstein and Goff Show" in afternoon drive. You can follow him on Twitter @dan_bernstein and read more of his columns here.