Kurt Warner should be high on Chicago Bears' shopping list
January 6
Chicago Tribune columnist David Haugh
"An NFL general manager who establishes finding a quarterback as his team's top off-season priority, as Jerry Angelo has for the Bears, is like an astronaut who says he is ready to soar into space.
Conceptually, there can be no limits to the possibilities, or what's the use?
That thought left the deepest impression when considering how the Bears viewed the first round of the NFL playoffs, a weekend that included 37-year-old free-agent-to-be Kurt Warner taking the Arizona Cardinals franchise to uncharted postseason territory.
Warner looked like the guy with two league MVP trophies on his mantel in completing 19 of 32 passes for 271 yards, two TDs and one interception in Saturday's 30-24 win over Atlanta. In Arizona, he's hotter than a black asphalt driveway, and the Cardinals would be foolish to let him hit the open market.
Yet as NFL.com reminded every quarterback-deficient team in the league Sunday, Warner and the Cardinals have made no progress in contract talks. Despite Warner's stated goal to retire with Arizona, various reports depict the two sides as being no closer than tourists on opposite ends of a famous canyon in the state.
The Cardinals have several expensive players to re-sign this off-season and still have a young quarterback waiting in the wings: Matt Leinart, in whom they still believe and in whom they have invested millions. Wishful thinking or not, the situation bears monitoring for Angelo if even the slightest chance exists of Warner hitting the open market.
There would be no shame in Kyle Orton biding time behind a potential Hall of Fame quarterback such as Warner, who might have two good years left and be relatively affordable with a contract that reflects that.
Now that it appears Donovan McNabb will be going nowhere this off-season but to a bank in Philadelphia with a new contract, the Bears have to turn their most ambitious thoughts to Warner.
Besides the Chicago connection with Lovie Smith, who was the Rams' defensive coordinator when Warner led the team to the 2002 Super Bowl, Warner's agent, Mark Bartelstein, also works in the city.
The Bears missed out on an opportunity to sign Warner in 2005 when he visited Halas Hall. He wanted an assurance he could compete for the starting job, something the Bears were unwilling to give with Rex Grossman in place. As legend has it, the quarterback-cursed franchise also lost out in 1997 when Warner had to cancel a tryout with the Bears because of swelling in his right arm caused by a spider bite suffered on his honeymoon. What a tangled quarterback web the Bears have woven since then."
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