December 10, 200322 yr Author According to today's Trib. The Bears' quarterback of the future will become their quarterback of the present when practice resumes Wednesday, team and league sources confirmed. Rex Grossman will start Sunday at Soldier Field against the Vikings to give the Bears three games to evaluate their first-round draft pick with the idea of preparing him to be the No. 1 quarterback for the 2004 season. Sources said Kordell Stewart expected Dick Jauron to make the switch to Grossman and accepted it with the professionalism Stewart has exhibited through a difficult season in Chicago. Thus 14 games into his professional career, Grossman will get the call for which he and optimism-starved Bears fans have been waiting. Forgive Grossman if he wonders what took so long. He has waited patiently but is accustomed to seeing the field early and often. Starting as a rookie follows a pattern of first-year success Grossman established as far back as his freshman year at Bloomington South High School. He started the fourth game of his high school career on his way to becoming a Parade All-American, and later the fifth game of his college career at Florida as a redshirt freshman against LSU. All Grossman did in his Gators debut was complete 18-of-28 passes for 276 yards and three touchdowns, numbers that might have some Bears fans nominating Grossman for rookie of the year if he posted them Sunday. Jauron informed the Bears quarterbacks of the decision Tuesday. It almost seemed inevitable after Stewart struggled as the Bears started 1-5 and became logical after the Bears were mathematically eliminated from the playoffs last Sunday in Green Bay. It marks the third time this season that Jauron has changed quarterbacks and the 23rd change in his Bears tenure. Playing Grossman adds even more intrigue to the Bears' final three games of the season. If he excels and somehow leads the Bears to the 8-8 record that has become the team's rallying cry, it bodes well for the 2004 season and might even factor in the decision on Jauron's future. If Grossman flops, then that threatens to overshadow the success of an otherwise strong rookie class drafted by general manager Jerry Angelo. Grossman remains the player who ultimately will define how Bears' history remembers the 2003 draft class. The Bears traded the fourth overall pick and ended up with the 14th and 22nd in the first round with their eyes on Grossman all along. He was taken 22nd, the fourth quarterback selected behind Carson Palmer, Byron Leftwich and Kyle Boller. Known as a gunslinger in college, Grossman has lived up to that reputation by regularly showing a rocket right arm in practice. But perhaps Grossman has made just as lasting of an impression on the Bears coaching staff with workmanlike practice habits that were occasionally criticized early in his college career. "I feel like if I was put in the game, I could run the offense," Grossman said after Sunday's game. "Am I as ready as I want to be? I don't know yet." . He will start to find out Sunday as the new starting quarterback for the Bears.
December 10, 200322 yr the suntimes today also had a 4 page segment about him playin and how other qbs did their rookie year
December 11, 200322 yr Kordell is a very talented Quarterback who is a double threat! Seriously, he can beat you with his arm and with his legs....beat you if you are on his team I mean.
December 11, 200322 yr he's gonna be cade mcclown 2.0 it's days of white and black quarterbacks are over move over for the next generation albinos
December 11, 200322 yr Grossman will probably suck ... as did guys like Elway, Aikman, Young, etc. I just hope we see flashes of a top notch NFL QB over the next 3 games.
December 11, 200322 yr Author The funniest part of all this is after he throws his first INT and all the people who have been screaming for Grossman to play since week 6, start calling him a bust and comparing him to Cade McFlop.
December 11, 200322 yr I'm gonna have to see him play before I make judgements. I never really saw him play in college, and Florida QBs have had a bad history of sucking in the NFL.
December 11, 200322 yr Too bad the bears had a little winning streak this year. I was hoping we could draft Eli Manning. Yeah right like we ever would, but it woulda been nice. I think time has proven that the Manning's are for real.
December 11, 200322 yr I'm already hoping for the Bears to draft Marcus Vick in a few years when Grossman turns into the next Cade McNown.
December 12, 200322 yr The funniest part of all this is after he throws his first INT and all the people who have been screaming for Grossman to play since week 6, start calling him a bust and comparing him to Cade McFlop. Look 4 posts above this original post.
December 12, 200322 yr I'm already hoping for the Bears to draft Marcus Vick in a few years when Grossman turns into the next Cade McNown. Then again, I should have read the entire thread.
December 12, 200322 yr Author Look 4 posts above this original post. The are always the premature bashers
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