Recently in QB's Category

Is this the Kyle Orton you have been waiting for?

The winner of the Bears' quarterback derby was dynamic in the first half, throwing for 147 yards and two touchdowns on 10-of-15 passing. He was accurate, efficient and a dropped touchdown pass at the goalline by Rashied Davis from being perfect himself, probably.

Orton matched J.T. O'Sullivan of the 49ers just about pass for pass. O'Sullivan threw one touchdown pass and had a 158.3 passer rating.

J.T. O'Sullivan, the two-time ex-Bear, just maxed out the passer rating formula against the Bears defense.

O'Sullivan was removed at the beginning of the second quarter with the 49ers ahead 13-10. He directed scoring drives on all three possessions, including a 37-yard touchdown pass to Jason Hill for a touchdown. The play before was a 40-yard pass to Vernon Davis in the two-play, 77-yard drive.

O'Sullivan's final numbers -- 7-for-8 for 126 yards and one touchdown.

And you thought the Bears have quarterback problems ... at least they're not in deep. Real deep. That's where the San Francisco 49ers find themselves entering this season.

When ex-Bear J.T. O'Sullivan starts tonight the Niners will have $11.6 million worth of quarterbacks standing on the sidelines holding clipboards and listening to the play calls from Mike Martz on head sets. That's a fortune tied up in this year's salary cap.

Here's why: O'Sullivan signed a modest one-year deal for the minimum salary benefit and counts $645,000 against the cap for this season. Shaun Hill, based on a nice little run at the end of last season, got a three-year extension and will count $1.7 million against the cap this season. Then there's Alex Smith, the man chosen three spots ahead of Cedric Benson at No. 1 overall in the 2005 draft. Smith will count $9.916 million against the cap this season, part pf the $49.5 million, six-year contract he landed.

Ouch.

Got to thinking about quarterbacks and the Bears while working on a story on the return of J.T. O'Sullivan for Thursday night's preseason meeting with San Francisco at Soldier Field.

O'Sullivan had two stints with the Bears in the last four years but never merited much of a look. The one thing you can say about the organization and its search for years, make that decades, for a franchise passer is at least they haven't given one away. There hasn't been a Bears' quarterback who left and went on to greatness elsewhere. At least not recently.

Yes, the Bears dealt Bobby Layne in 1949, one year after drafting him and he went on to a Hall of Fame career. George Halas eventually called it one of his greatest errors. George Blanda spent some time in a Bears uniform as well a short time later. But recently, have they really given away a great quarterback?

Working through the reaction at Halas Hall following the naming of Kyle Orton as the starting quarterback for the 2008 season.

Here is the most telling quote from the afternoon from coach Lovie Smith when he was asked if the quarterback derby between Orton and Rex Grossman was over:

"Is it over?'' Smith said. "Nothing is ever over with any position. We don't name any guys starters for a lifetime or anything like that. But we feel real good about Kyle just like we feel good about Olin Kreutz being our center, Lance Briggs being our will linebacker."

Veteran NFL writer Ira Miller, who recently relocated to the Chicago area from San Francisco, put together a preview of the Bears following a recent visit to Bourbonnais.

You can always pick up something insightful when visiting with Ira on the sidelines, and in this case you can definitely pick up something insightful when reading Ira on NFL.com.

"Consider that [Rex] Grossman's 19-11 record as an NFL starter, combined with Kyle Orton's 12-6, equals a winning percentage exceeded by only six active quarterbacks, a group that includes Tom Brady, Peyton Manning and Donovan McNabb."

That's pretty interesting. Both quarterbacks have been helped by a usually tough defense and a stout running game before last season.

We wrote it last weekend that Grossman could have a slight advantage now given the fact that he'll get the start with the ones Saturday night in Seattle and Orton figures to get a little less time. It will be interesting if they have even performances like they seemed to coming out of the Kansas City game. Stay tuned.

While the Bears still sort their way through the quarterback competition, some ex-Bears quarterbacks are doing fine elsewhere.

J.T. O'Sullivan, who did a stint in 2005 on the practice squad, and then was under control of the Bears after the 2006 season is in the lead for the starting job in San Francisco. O'Sullivan never merited much of a look with the Bears but Mike Martz thinks he's the perfect quarterback in his system. O'Sullivan has bounced all over the place, spending time in New Orleans, Green Bay, Detroit, Minnesota, Carolina, New England and in NFL Europe. There may be some other stops sprinkled in there as well.

The Chad Pennington era has officially ended with the New York Jets.

They cut ties with him this afternoon after acquiring Brett Favre from the Green Bay Packers. Pennington, 32, is on the street looking for a job and there has been some speculation he will find a home in the NFC North. The Palm Beach Post has reported that the Miami Dolphins have touched base with Pennington's agent, Tom Condon already.

It's unlikely the Bears will kick the tires on Pennington and give him a look and it's for a number of reason.

So much for seeing Brett Favre at Soldier Field this season.

His era in Green Bay came to an end when he left there Tuesday after two days of meetings with coach Mike McCarthy.

It looked like the Bears would still get to meet Favre, who drew strong interest from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who visit Sept. 21 in the first home game of the regular season.

But FoxSports is reporting that the future Hall of Famer has been dealt to the New York Jets. This could free up veteran quarterback Chad Pennington, who has led the Jets to the postseason three times. The Jets will likely need to clear some salary-cap room and he would be the obvious choice to go.

The Bears finally unwrapped the mystery that was hidden inside an enigma.

Kyle Orton will start at quarterback Thursday night at Soldier Field.

Rex Grossman will get some work and then he will start the next preseason game Aug. 16 at Seattle.

Lovie Smith said the decision had nothing to do with where the quarterbacks are in their competition almost two weeks into training camp.

"Of course I am excited to play in front of the home crowd," Orton said. "Practice has been going well so we'll go out and get the preseason off to a good start."

Check back later on for more.

Nothing will match the quarterback quagmire the Green Bay Packers find themselves in, but face it, if it wasn't for the great Brett Favre showdown the Bears' situation would be as muddled as any in the league.

That point was driven home in the practice Friday night at Soldier Field when the crowd of 24,977 had more than a smattering of boos for Rex Grossman during player introductions. Afterward, coach Lovie Smith more or less asked for patience in a QB derby that figures to run at least another three weeks. The boos intensified when he threw passes away on consecutive plays in the red zone. Never mind no one was open on the plays. Grossman's effort with the first team in the two-minute drill also sputtered short of the 50-yard line.

Joe Theismann visited with Tom Waddle and Marc Silverman Wednesday morning on AM-1000 and shared some thoughts on the Bears. If nothing else, Theismann is opinionated.

CAN YOU DETERMINE THE BEST QUARTERBACK IN TRAINING CAMP PRACTICES?

THEISMANN: I think you can. I think because both of them have a body of work already, Kyle has a body of work; Rex has a body of work. I mean, they've both played for the Bears over the last three years in some way, shape or form. So you look at the performance of the football team over that period of time, so you have a starting point. And then what you do, it goes into open competition; completions, moving the football team, command of the huddle, all those things will play in. Efficiency of handoffs, all the little things that you really will get graded on that you can actually look at and physically right down numbers and say 'OK, you completed more passes in the red zone, you completed more passes here, the offense looked good under your command, the offense struggled under your command.' And you sit down and start to evaluate it, and that's basically what you're going to wind up doing.