The Chicago Bears entered this offseason knowing they needed to make a serious upgrade at quarterback. Former No. 2 overall pick Mitchell Trubisky had run his course in Chicago, and Nick Foles proved a year ago that he wasn’t the answer. With Russell Wilson requesting a trade and listing Chicago among his preferred landing spots, the stars finally seemed aligned for the Bears to acquire a top flight starter in the league, which, when coupled with their stout defense, would have made them a contender in the NFC.
However, the Seahawks refused to deal Wilson and the Bears didn’t seem to want to chase Deshaun Watson in trade talks with the Texans, and so they went out and signed a quarterback on the free agent market. The problem is, this wasn’t a very strong quarterback class in free agency — which, it rarely is as no one likes to let a top QB just walk — and they ended up inking Andy Dalton to a 1-year, $10 million deal. Some Bears fans tried to rationalize this as a stop-gap measure that would allow them to still possibly deal for Wilson or someone else, or draft someone this year and have them not have the immediate pressure to start.
Dalton made clear he signed under the assumption he was going to be the starter, and on Wednesday, for some reason, the Bears decided to make an emphatic statement acknowledging that on Twitter.
QB1. pic.twitter.com/TuyrAcpoCM
— Chicago Bears (@ChicagoBears) March 25, 2021
It was an odd thing to just fire off at 7 p.m. local on a Wednesday, but they went for it and, unsurprisingly, their fans were not pleased with the post.
Pain. pic.twitter.com/zef4Mg7VdV
— Sam (@Sam_____219) March 25, 2021
— THE™ Jessi Davin (@jessithebuckeye) March 25, 2021
Delete this right now. This is actually embarrassing
— m (@downbadbears) March 25, 2021
If you have to sign a starting QB in free agency, you don't have a quality starting QB.
Quality starting QBs don't get to free agency.
If you want to make the fans happy, change the leadership. pic.twitter.com/7KC2w75twU
— Sean (@celticsean418) March 25, 2021
— Jaime Mendoza (@J____Mendoza) March 25, 2021
https://twitter.com/moneylinechad/status/1374874388999282688
https://twitter.com/TrufoleskyMick/status/1374874029123903490
Bears fans looking at Social Media team like: pic.twitter.com/6aNYMqyXHZ
— 👑Terron Start Russ/Ty Lue Disliker (@terron_francis) March 25, 2021
https://twitter.com/Bear33Big/status/1374874480380678149
https://twitter.com/BestHumanTalent/status/1374876402860892162