Chicago Bears (Photo by Michael Shroyer/Getty Images)
The Chicago Bears might benefit from a canceled college football season.
We are now within five weeks of the Chicago Bears playing a meaningful football game again. As we inch closer to the start of the NFL season, we have grown accustomed to Week 1 being precipitated by a slate of college football games to wet our collective whistles.
Unfortunately, the news out of the NCAA world seems to strongly suggest that there will not be a college football season, as the Big Ten has, at least according to one contested report, voted to cancel its season. If true, presumably, other conferences would quickly follow suit.
However, while it would be incredibly disappointing, it could also be a benefit to the Bears, so perhaps there is a silver lining to the bad news.
So how could the Bears benefit? I’m glad you asked. Like everything in football, it comes down to the quarterback position.
While fans are getting revved up for the battle between Mitchell Trubisky and Nick Foles, the reality is the Bears will most likely be in the market for a quarterback in next year’s draft. Unless Trubisky becomes who Pace thought he was, the Bears absolutely must draft a quarterback.
While we don’t know where they will be drafting, the fact that there won’t be a college football season could give them additional options.
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Of course, this is all predicated on a giant condition — and that is that the Bears competently scout the position. But if they can, and with Matt Nagy involved in the process, there is reason to believe they will be better, they should be in a pretty good spot.
However, teams were likely looking for each of them to validate their 2019 seasons with as good or better 2020 seasons. Without that ability, some teams may be scared off from drafting these quarterbacks too high (though Lance is the exception). That could allow one or more of them to drop to the second round when a solid 2020 season would assuredly have put them squarely in the first round.
This would be huge, especially if the Bears put together a decent season and end up drafting outside the top 15. Again, if the Bears can competently scout the position — and that is a big if — they may stumble into a franchise quarterback when they otherwise may not have had that chance.