And the Surfboard You Rode in On

By Benjy Lipsman in News on Aug 31, 2005 9:39PM

As many predicted, the Bears cut QB Chad Hutchinson yesterday, just days after naming Kyle Orton the new starting QB and dropping Hutchinson to 4th on the depth chart.

Hutchinson signed with the Bears following Rex Grossman's season-ending knee injury. Slow to pick up Terry Shea's overly complex playbook, he didn't see action until Dec. 5th. That was the high point of his Bears career as he went 18-30 with 3 TD passes (115.0 rating). Starting the final 5 games of a lost season, he went 1-4 with a QB rating of 73.6, and after that first game threw 4 interceptions but only 1 TD pass and was sacked 23 times in those 5 games -- including 9 times in the finale against Green Bay. Not pretty... unless compared to the efforts of Jonathan Quinn or Craig Krenzel.

Bears GM Jerry Angelo must have spent too much of the off-season watching tapes of those two because something made him believe that Hutchinson was an adequate backup for Grossman in 2005. He brought in the likes of Brad Johnson, Jay Feidler and Kurt Warner for tryouts but made no offers to any of those veterans. Chicagoist really believed that the Bears needed to bring in an experienced backup, but Angelo claimed he knew what he was doing.

Chicagoist again questioned his decision when we saw Grossman go down with a broken ankle. Angelo professed his confidence in Hutchinson, yet almost immediately added Jeff Blake to the roster. A couple shaky pre-season starts combined with impresive performances by rookie Kyle Orton made head coach Lovie Smith make the change. Only days later, and Hutchinson is free to return to the surf from which the Bears plucked him.