Rex Grossman has shown multiple times that he does not put in the work to be mentally prepared. From being more worried about New Year's plans to sitting on the sidelines barely paying attention to the game to being clearly unprepared to enter the game when Orton got injured earlier this year he's shown that he isn't giving his full effort once the Bears didn't hand him the job without question. The fact that our backup QB this year was so unprepared to enter a game this year should make every Bears fan mad.


Orton's QB rating is affected greatly by playing nearly a whole season as a rookie when he was drafted to hold a clipboard. Rex Grossman didn't waste our time for his whole career but I truly believe that his mental preparation after he had that great 6 game stretch has been terrible and has wasted our time.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

Let me try and make this easy on you since your Rex Grossman love seems to have made you misunderstand.

Rex Grossman was given an opportunity by the Chicago Bears to be the starting QB for 6 years. He's also been paid quite well as a #1 starting QB for that time. He's a big boy. I'm not going to feel sorry for someone giving an obscene gesture to Rex Grossman at a football game. I've had people give me an obscene gesture while driving and I wasn't doing something that puts millions of dollars in my bank account. I've never said that the "supposed" death threats were right. Even throwing things is dumb, but he's not the first football player to have something thrown at him.

You act like he's some great hero who has overcome major adversity. He's a QB who was bad for all but six games and the fans that show up to games who helped fund the millions of dollars he made booed him and gave him obscene gestures. Should we make his birthday a national holiday because he was booed?

Now that we've established that.
Let's compare how Rex Grossman has been treated in his time here.
Drafted in the first round and that day established as the future of the Bears QB position. Paid as a first round NFL QB pick. Put in at the end of the season with the starting spot all but guaranteed for next year. Handed the starting spot in his second year. Handed the starting spot in his third year. Handed the starting spot in his fourth year. Handed the starting spot in his fifth year. Resigned and given a good shot at winning the starting job. The media was all over him in Chicago as the future for the first four years even with his constant injuries making it hard to determine whether he was actually good. They were all over him when he had that great 6 game stretch. The next year, the media still made the case that Rex Grossman could still had great potential. Even this year, when Orton was named the starter you still had people saying that Grossman had the higher ceiling.
Now let's see how Kyle Orton was treated.
Drafted in the fourth round and being put at the third string QB. Paid as a fourth round pick. Thrust into the starting job after spending most time getting reps with the practice squad type players. Asked to manage games because he clearly wasn't ready to be an NFL starting QB. Winning ten games as a rookie but still having to hear about how bad his numbers were(they were) and how they won games in spite of him. Losing his job to Rex Grossman as they neared the playoffs. Then, he wasn't even given a chance to compete for the job the next year. He finally wins the starting job, wins a lot of games in spite of the fact that this defense isn't very good any more. Gets injured and comes back to early. Now he's playing bad and you are hearing about how his numbers are the same as Rex was. People are already talking about not giving Orton an extension and drafting a QB next year(not a bad idea).

To me, it seems like Rex got a free pass for 5-6 years.

Now who was handed things on a silver platter and who had to fight just to get another chance? Oh, but he got booed? Let's put up a statue outside US Cellular Field to reward the courage he showed.

I can't wait until you see what happens to Rex next year. It's very telling that his best option this last off-season was coming back to a team he failed at for 5 years, a fan base that didn't really like him, and a team with very few offensive weapons. I highly doubt his stellar performance this year improved his free agent stock.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

Now we have Rick throwing out baseless accusations that Rex doesn't prepare for games. If anything the stories are that Orton doesn't work as hard as Rex does.

In fact in Bourbonnais Orton was kissing media patootie while rex was taking extra work with the coaches.

I'm so sick of hearing he was handed the job on a silver platter. He was the best QB according to the coaches in camp and during HIS FIRST FULL YEAR as a starter they went to the Super Bowl. Next season he had 3 whole games before being benched.

If anything Orton was handed the job this year. He did not outperform Rex there was obviously no competition he had a whole better half in one preseason game.

Orton has nearly the same TO percentage despite his first season asked to manage the offense and do everything you can to avoid turnovers.

It just dawned on me Boilermaker means Purdue so no wonder Rick is in love with Orton.

And by the way he never hit free agency last season so there's no telling if there would be a better option out there. Lovie and turner lied to him about being given a chance to compete for the job going into the 08 season.

Smith and Turner wanted to play it safe. The safe option is Orton. It won't get you to the Super Bowl but you'll probably win 9 or 10 games and lose in the first round of the playoffs if you make it.

Smith and Turner also listened to the media and idiot fans. That's why they should be fired. The day any decision is made based on the media and the fans the coaches should be fired.

It is not a baseless accusation. Did you not watch how he performed in the game that Orton got injured? It was crystal clear that he barely knew what was going on in that game. Any Bears fan could see that he was completely unprepared to play that day. When they showed him on the bench, he barely seemed to be paying attention. We saw that was true in that game.

Can you stop making stuff up please? It makes it hard to take you seriously.

He was the best QB because they never had any competition brought in because Rex was "there guy". Angelo's inability to bring in a decent backup cost us games and possibly a Super Bowl. Take a look at Kurt Warner in Arizona. He's just one example of a QB the Bears could have had but they refused to tell them they could compete for the starting job.

He outperformed him. He's better than him. How did Rex perform when he got actual playing time this year? He's not a good QB. Maybe it was injuries. Maybe it was he mentally couldn't handle it. Maybe he is too short and can't see over people. 99% of the people on this board have figured it out.

What does his rookie season have to do with who is better now? Orton was supposed to be holding a clipboard all year and his rookie season is about as important now as the six game stretch that Rex was good. It's 2008 and almost 2009.

You are a quick one. Let me guess, you like the Cubs and are a girl.

I'm also not in love with Orton. Even when he was playing good pre-injury I wanted the Bears to take a QB in the first four rounds next year and have a real competition. Personally, I would like to see Orton do well because I like him but if he keeps playing like he did the past 4 games then I'll have no problem calling for him to be benched just like I did with Rex for a few years. I'm a Bears fan #1 and I just want them to win. I also won't complain about him being booed or Bears fans getting what they deserve if he goes somewhere and does good. Kyle Orton is the best QB on the Bears roster and until he's not he's my guy.

By the way, I've pretty much been right on in the Orton vs. Rex debate the whole time I've been posting here. I thought Orton should have been benched as a rookie. I started to buy into Rex Grossman when he played awesome but I wasn't totally sold and I was calling for him to be benched when it was clear that he couldn't stop himself from making dumb throws(by the way, if Orton continues to make dumb throws I'll do the same for him). The fact that you still think Rex is a better option means you've been wrong for at least a year.

If there was a better option out there, Rex would have taken it. He found little to no interest in him and returned to the Bears. The fact he didn't wait until the start of free agency to resign doesn't mean he didn't somehow gauge other teams interest.

You don't honestly think Rex Grossman is the reason the Bears made the Super Bowl do you? The fact that he found a way not to turn the ball over 3 or 4 times in a few playoff games doesn't mean he got us there.

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This will be the 6th year where Rex Grossman started a game for the Bears or was the starter in the preseason. I don't think the idiot fans are the one that have given up on him. Let's go over it one more time. Rex Grossman started a game for the Bears in every season for half a decade and failed to establish himself as the starter. He was then beat out by a fourth round pick game manager who went on to play better than Rex Grossman had since the six game stretch where he somehow found a way to play well.

Smith and Turner will be in Chicago longer than Rex will and they'll both be in the league longer than Rex.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

If you're judging lack of mental preperation on the Detroit game since he put up slightly better numbers in 1/2 of football than Orton did in the first half you'd have to say Kyle wasn't mentally prepared to start.

When Orton struggled against the Vikings last year in his first start, you defended him saying that he hadn't played the whole year, he needed to get his timing down even though he did have a whole week of practice. Does not the same apply to Grossman coming off the bench cold?

No Orton could go out and commit a mass murder and they'd criticize Rex more because he was caught partying in Vegas.

That's sort of what I said, but it went much further then that. You have to agree that a QB who spent nearly the whole season as the third string QB, got nothing but garbage minutes in the pre-season with and against players that aren't NFL quality and spent more time in practice pretending to be Jon Kitna then he did working with the first team is a little different then a QB spending a majority of the pre-season sharing first team snaps with the eventual starter, spending the rest of the year as the backup who's primary job is to prepare that week as if he would be playing right?

I defended Orton because he hadn't seen meaningful game action in a very long time. Did he not sit the bench for the whole 2006 season and the first 13 games of last season as the third string QB?

Also, it's not that I blame Rex for playing bad in that game. I'm sure he was rusty but it seemed to me and most of this board that Rex just wasn't mentally prepared to play. He seemed lost out there. Even some of the biggest Rex supporters on this site had the same opinion and found major fault with Rex for it. He was our backup but every time you saw him on the sidelines he barely seemed to be paying attention. He gets into the game and plays the same way.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

Rex may have ended up with similar statistics but it was obvious to everyone that Rex Grossman was not prepared to enter the game. Not a great thing for your backup QB.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

Since I don't know what he does before the game, I am not going to get into speculation in how he prepares. He may prepare for the game well, but it might not translate once he gets on the field. His lack of height and mobilty certainly does not help.

My thought is basically that we have seen a lot of Bear QB's over the years. Rex was certainly not the worst, Quinn, Burris, Stewart come to mind. Rex wasn't even the worst 1st round QB pick, McNown and Mirer (traded for a first rounder.) Of course Rex hasn't been the best Bear QB either. But he did contribute to a Bear team that went to a SB, there aren't many Bear QBs that can say that. I just feel that some of the critizism Rex got over the years may have been a little over the top.

But it is time for Rex move on, and maybe the Bears can get a WR or too to help Orton next year.