Leftwich on Bears: 'Tell Them to Look me Up

[The Explorer]

Chicago Sun-Times - The Bears have admitted that handling the quarterback position is their top priority this offseason, and Byron Leftwich would like to enter the mix.

"We are in the playoff run right now, so I don't even want to go there, but tell them to look me up," Leftwich, who is currently backing up Ben Roethlisberger in Pittsburgh, said. "I'm a fan of Lovie Smith, I'll just say that. I thought that was where I was going to go in the beginning. I remember hoping that I would go there. I just wanted to be a part of the tradition, the history of the Bears. You're growing up, watching games at Soldier Field on TV, I wanted to be a part of that coming out. I thought there was a chance I would go there.

"I want a chance to go somewhere and play. I guess everybody wanted to see if I am healthy, and now they can see it. I'm ready to play again."

He isn't great, but since he really wants to play for Chicago, Angelo should strongly consider it.

[Chewie]

Why the hell not? If we don't go QB in the draft, the more competition for Orton the better.

[shugknight]

Why is everyone not giving Orton another shot? This is what I don't get about all these Bears fans. Orton was serviceable at QB for the entire season. The reason we went 9-7 and didn't make the playoffs is our defense.

We have a QB in Orton. Forget Leftwich.. if you think he's the answer to our QB problems, ask yourself why he never amounted to anything in Jacksonville?

Forget the QB position. This offseason we worry about 3 positions...

1. CB/Safety
2. WR
3. O-Line

Thats it. Anything else you say we need help on can be addressed later. But these 3 positions are our glaring weaknesses.

[Chewie]

Forget the QB position.

Yeah, it's only the most important position on the field.

If you heard Angelo's post-season comments, you heard he's not 100% sold on Orton, he wants competition at the position, and he definitely noticed how older vets did well this season.

Orton did just so-so....less than so-so after he was injured. The position demands attention each and every year until we get it right. If we don't draft one early then look for guys like Jeff Garcia and Byron Leftwich to be mentioned. Don't worry, though - if your man Orton is the end-all he'll beat the competition in camp and still be the starting QB going into the season.

I saw ZERO reason to just hand Orton the keys without bringing some competition in. But don't ask me...ask the Jerry Angelo.

[Friend_Of_Haley]

No thanks.

[chitownsports4ever]

Forget the QB position.

Yeah, it's only the most important position on the field.

If you heard Angelo's post-season comments, you heard he's not 100% sold on Orton, he wants competition at the position, and he definitely noticed how older vets did well this season.

Orton did just so-so....less than so-so after he was injured. The position demands attention each and every year until we get it right. If we don't draft one early then look for guys like Jeff Garcia and Byron Leftwich to be mentioned. Don't worry, though - if your man Orton is the end-all he'll beat the competition in camp and still be the starting QB going into the season.

I saw ZERO reason to just hand Orton the keys without bringing some competition in. But don't ask me...ask the Jerry Angelo.

I dont know about that Chewie imo it wouldnt be just handing Orton the keys . Our offense exceeded expectations this next year should be looked upon as further development of that offense .

Orton is in the last year of his contract if the Bears dont sign him to an extension what better motivation could it be than to be going into free agency . I took Angelos comments as a negotiation tactic moreso than a question of his ability . Im all for improving every position but Orton showed enough to go into camp taking all the snaps and for us to expect improvement.

If you really think about it Lovies and Turners comments on Kyle being our starter and playing well this year was basically driving the price up in negotiations so Angelo had to shut them down.Angelo didnt want to talk extension with those comments hanging over his head so he will push for his price or both will agree to wait.

[Chewie]

I dont know about that Chewie imo it wouldnt be just handing Orton the keys . Our offense exceeded expectations this next year should be looked upon as further development of that offense .

Our offense exceeding expectations had a lot to do with Forte's success, though, IMO. No doubt Orton had 4-5 good games or so that even had me on the bandwagon at one point. Then I saw locking into receivers and bad decision making to close out the season.

Orton is in the last year of his contract if the Bears dont sign him to an extension what better motivation could it be than to be going into free agency . I took Angelos comments as a negotiation tactic moreso than a question of his ability .

If you really think about it Lovies and Turners comments on Kyle being our starter and playing well this year was basically driving the price up in negotiations so Angelo had to shut them down.Angelo didnt want to talk extension with those comments hanging over his head so he will push for his price or both will agree to wait.

It's definitely possible but I'm not even sure if he's looking to extend Orton prior to next season. I took his words that he's not 100% sold on KO at face value.

Im all for improving every position but Orton showed enough to go into camp taking all the snaps and for us to expect improvement.

We'll just agree to disagree here and I fully respect your opinion. I'm not happy with just settling and hoping defense, special teams, and just good enough play from the QB gets it done. I've seen enough of retread and rookie QBs succeeding this year to want better. I realize that compared to Rex and the list of QBs we've gone through during the Favre era, Orton looks like the second coming but I still don't think he's the guy. That being the case, I'm all for either a first day pick at the position or bringing in a vet for competition in camp.

[WEFFPIM]

We'll call you when you don't weigh as much as a Volvo.

[shugknight]

Forget the QB position.

Yeah, it's only the most important position on the field.

If you heard Angelo's post-season comments, you heard he's not 100% sold on Orton, he wants competition at the position, and he definitely noticed how older vets did well this season.

Orton did just so-so....less than so-so after he was injured. The position demands attention each and every year until we get it right. If we don't draft one early then look for guys like Jeff Garcia and Byron Leftwich to be mentioned. Don't worry, though - if your man Orton is the end-all he'll beat the competition in camp and still be the starting QB going into the season.

I saw ZERO reason to just hand Orton the keys without bringing some competition in. But don't ask me...ask the Jerry Angelo.

Yes it is the most important position on the field.. but at the same time, do you really think we'll find somebody that's more worthy than Orton? Somebody who has been in the same system for the past 3-4 years now? Do you really think Leftwich, Garcia, Collins or any of these other old geezers will make us the 2008-2009 Tennessee Titans? Or you really think we'll find a QB in the draft that will be Matt Ryan/Atlanta Falcons?

Don't fall for these trends that happen every year. This past season, it was about the aging QB's. The season before that was the "Do It All" RB.. the year before that was the "We need a good return guy" kick returner...

Like I said, even though the QB may be one of the important positions on the field, it's not our biggest weakness. Our biggest weakness is our secondary who happens to let any Joe Schmoe make 10 catches for 185 yards and 2 scores. You really want to rely on Tillman, Vasher, DManning, McBride, etc for the next few seasons? I wouldn't... I'd rather have Grossman as our QB than have those guys covering the deep field.

And you have a point when you say that if Orton is the man, he'll win the job.. but why put pressure on him again to win the job? He's been pressured to win the job the past 2 seasons! He posted a 9-7 record with having a sub-par defense as well as an aging o-line, rookie RB, and no WR's. What more do you want? Give him some threats outside of Devin Hester and Matt Forte.. and I bet he'll put up better stats.

Like I said.. we can't always depend on drafting our franchise QB. Because well.. we've sucked at drafting "franchise" QB's so far.. This game is a team game. You're only as strong as your weakest player. You can have Joe Montana as your QB, but without a decent defense, or more options on offense.. we'll still have a mediocre team..

Keep Orton this upcoming season. Give him another full year to show us what else he's got. At the same time, use this draft and the off-season to help other glaring weaknesses on the field. Once we get help in those area's and Orton still sucks after the 09-10 season, then we can go looking to draft a Tebow...

Here's my idea..

Trade a 2nd and 4th Rnd Pick to Cincinnati for Chad Johnson.

Use the 1st Rnd on a safety/shut down corner.

Use the rest of the draft to help the O-Line and more depths at the corners.

[Chewie]

I think we're both going to stick to our guns here which is fine. I don't think the fact that we've had problems finding a franchise QB in the past should prohibit us from keeping the search on and I think we can address the needs you mentioned as well as a QB. Addressing one position doesn't necessarily mean you have to ignore the other.

To be clear, it's not that I want Orton off the team - there's no reason to dump him outright given we have him under contract for another year. I just don't want us to ignore the position if Mark Sanchez is sitting there at our pick in Rd1 or to ignore the position in free agency. Competition is a good thing!

[Cliff Levingston]

With the inevitable departure of Grossman, we're going to need a backup, and it'll probably be tough to find a better one for the price than Leftwich who'll also be able to push Orton. Leftwich is an outstanding passer but he's an absolute statue in the pocket and is injury prone. Can't see why anyone would be opposed to bringing him in as competition. Hopefully Orton beats him out and proves that he can take the next step, or maybe we catch lightning in a bottle and Leftwich realizes his potential in a Bears uniform. Of course there's the possibility of Orton beating out Leftwich cause Byron can't stay healthy or just isn't any good for us and we still have a mediocre/poor QB, but let's not think about that.

[BuLLs>LiFe]

Seriously, how could it possibly hurt to bring him in? With Grossman gone, we're still going to need a back-up QB unless you're comfortable with Hanie (which you shouldn't be). If Orton can't even beat out Leftwich, that's going to be a problem anyways. Worst case scenario, Orton beats out Leftwich and we have a serviceable back-up QB. What's wrong with that?

[chitownsports4ever]

Seriously, how could it possibly hurt to bring him in? With Grossman gone, we're still going to need a back-up QB unless you're comfortable with Hanie (which you shouldn't be). If Orton can't even beat out Leftwich, that's going to be a problem anyways. Worst case scenario, Orton beats out Leftwich and we have a serviceable back-up QB. What's wrong with that?

So are you saying he should split reps in camp again ? I have no problems with bringing in a capable backup that you know if Orton slips up can come in and do the job . But I dont see anything in his play this season that suggests he hasnt earned the opportunity to take all the snaps going into camp. Now if he under performs and whoever we bring in outperforms him then of course you have to do whats best for the team .

Ive always liked Leftwich and wanted him to be a bear when he came out soo bad . Im not sure our line is good enough to keep him up an entire year though. Hopefully we can try and strengthen it this offseason.

[BuLLs>LiFe]

So are you saying he should split reps in camp again ? I have no problems with bringing in a capable backup that you know if Orton slips up can come in and do the job . But I dont see anything in his play this season that suggests he hasnt earned the opportunity to take all the snaps going into camp. Now if he under performs and whoever we bring in outperforms him then of course you have to do whats best for the team .

Ive always liked Leftwich and wanted him to be a bear when he came out soo bad . Im not sure our line is good enough to keep him up an entire year though. Hopefully we can try and strengthen it this offseason.

No, I do think Orton should be the starter next year. If he does struggle early on though, it would be nice to have a capable QB to step in (which Hanie is not regardless of how good he looked against 2nd unit scrubs). I don't think we'll be able to get anyone that's clearly head and shoulders better than him, and he's done enough good things last year to warrant the opportunity. At the same time, I'm not as enamored with him as some other people, and I don't think he's the long term answer at QB, but for next year, he's probably my starter.

Plus, I think this team has way too many holes to worry about QB. I'm not thrilled about KO as my starting QB, but for now, he'll do b/c sadly, QB is/was not one of the biggest problems on this team last year.

[chibearsfan]

I think we're both going to stick to our guns here which is fine. I don't think the fact that we've had problems finding a franchise QB in the past should prohibit us from keeping the search on and I think we can address the needs you mentioned as well as a QB. Addressing one position doesn't necessarily mean you have to ignore the other.

To be clear, it's not that I want Orton off the team - there's no reason to dump him outright given we have him under contract for another year. I just don't want us to ignore the position if Mark Sanchez is sitting there at our pick in Rd1 or to ignore the position in free agency. Competition is a good thing!

wtf, mark sanchez ...... id consider him maybe in rd 6

[Chewie]

I think we're both going to stick to our guns here which is fine. I don't think the fact that we've had problems finding a franchise QB in the past should prohibit us from keeping the search on and I think we can address the needs you mentioned as well as a QB. Addressing one position doesn't necessarily mean you have to ignore the other.

To be clear, it's not that I want Orton off the team - there's no reason to dump him outright given we have him under contract for another year. I just don't want us to ignore the position if Mark Sanchez is sitting there at our pick in Rd1 or to ignore the position in free agency. Competition is a good thing!

wtf, mark sanchez ...... id consider him maybe in rd 6

And that is why you fail.

[SpinninHouse]

We clearly need a #2 QB so I would have no problems with Leftwich. besides I would be happier saving our picks for WR, DE, DB, and LB. We desperately need to replace the following people:

DE - Ogunleye, Mark Anderson
WR - Rashied Davis, Marty Booker, Brandon Lloyd
LB - Hunter Hillenmeyer
DB - Mike brown, Vasher
QB - Rex Grossman

To me, QB is the 5th more pressing need out of our weaknesses. Orton is a serviceable starter as opposed to guys like Oguneleye and Rashied Davis clearly not being. Our one major non-draft acquistion (ie FA signing or trade) should certainly be WR.