Rex Grossman

OK so I'm English and I'm a Bears fan, started watching football when I still lived in the UK circa 1983 or so, and I've been a Bears fan ever since.

Given I live on the West coast Bears information has been limited to ESPN, the NFL site and the official Bears site. But recently I've been using the power of the Internet to read local Chicago news columns. I'm stunned at the amount of flak Grossman is taking.

Not that some criticism isn't warranted, but they seem to want to blame Chicago's offensive woes exclusively on Grossman. Sure he's making mistakes, but watching the games I'm just not seeing lots of open receivers for him to throw to, and I am seeing unblocked blitzers coming off the edge and levelling the guy. That's not all on Grossman.

Some of that probably comes from his past poor performances under pressure, defenses don't respect his ability to hurt them when they rush. And they are likely to keep sending the pass rush until the Bears offense starts to make it hurt.

Ignoring the stats for the moment, if anything this year Grossman looks improved, for the most part he has shown better awareness in the pocket, albeit he needs to show more. But the whole offense has just looked out of Sync.

I understand other Bear fans frustrations. We have a stellar defense, great special teams, a veteran offensive line so the consensus is we should be winning superbowls now. But what are you going to do at Quarterback if it's not Grossman?

It's not like the Bears have a lot of options at quarterback, I don't think Griese is the answer nor do I think Kyle Orton is. I'd rather ride out Grossmans inconsistencies to see if he does become something more in the short term. And I'm pretty sure Booing and pooh poohing him continuously in the press really doesn't improve his chances.

We could draft another quarter back and wait the 4 years or so for him to mature, but realistically Bears fans just don't have the patience for that. Our past attempts to pick up experienced veterans to manage the game at that position haven't exactly panned out either.

I think if the Bears are going to win a Superbowl this year or in the next 3 or 4 years, the difference is going to have to be a maturing Grossman and stability at quarter back. I really hope it can happen that way, because I think the alternative is a steadily aging team as the Bears rotate through quarterbacks as they have in the not too distant past.