Chicago Bears: A Long Journey Through Quarterback Hell (Part 1)

It’s difficult to explain to people who aren’t Chicago Bears fans just how inept the franchise has been with quarterbacks. There are many stats to help illustrate the point. Just two Pro Bowl appearances since the mid-1960s. No 30-TD or 4,000-yard seasons in an era where they’re commonplace. A staggering number of starters over the decades who tried and failed (often spectacularly) in their bid to change the fortunes.

In the end, the best thing to do might be to go back and recount it all. Every single step of the journey in all its misery to gain a greater appreciation of how much things have changed. The idea is to help explain why skepticism continues to reign even in the face of mounting signs the team may finally have a quarterback they can be proud of. It isn’t because fans are callous or negative. It is a simple case of them having been burned too many times in the past.

Others may claim they understand. They don’t. Every other organization in the NFL has had at least one true franchise passer during the Super Bowl era. Only the Bears fail in that qualification. So it’s time to begin with the question. Does the greatest run of quarterback ineptitude have a flashpoint? Where did the disease arrive and start to spread?

Ironically at a point when the team was burdened with too many good ones.

Chicago Bears QB problems began with poor George Halas decision

Believe it or not, there was a time in Bears history where they were loaded to the brim with good quarterbacks. In 1948, the team was two years removed from their fourth NFL championship of the decade. Sid Luckman, their longtime starter, was on his way to the Hall of Fame. However, at 32-years old his time in the league was starting to run short. It is for this reason that team owner and coach George Halas had begun preparing for the future.

In 1946, the Bears had used their 1st round pick on Notre Dame quarterback Johnny Lujack. Then that same year of ’48, they struck again by using another on Texas star Bobby Layne. Suddenly the team was loaded with talent at the position. It appeared that their future going into the next decade was secure. Whenever Luckman was ready to step down, Halas would be free to choose a successor.

Unfortunately, such plans rarely survive the human element. After the end of that season, Layne came to Halas. He was not content to serve as a backup to Luckman. He also probably realized that because Lujack got there two years ahead of him that he would get the first crack at the starting job. Thus Layne asked the Bears patriarch to trade him if he wasn’t going to be allowed to play.

Halas surprisingly agreed.

Today people would wonder why he’d do that. He certainly wasn’t under any obligation. In truth, it comes down to two factors: money and loyalty. Layne later explained that Halas had selected him with the belief Luckman was going to retire. When that didn’t happen, he had a choice to make on who the eventual successor would be. The choice was less about ability and more about who would be the bigger draw in Chicago.

“Johnny Lujack and I were rookies together at Chicago. Mr. Halas thought Sid Luckman was going to retire, but Sid decided to play two or three more years.

Mr. Halas was a great man. He told me, ‘Bobby, I can’t afford to keep three quarterbacks and I can’t make Sid retire. He’s Jewish, which means a lot of season tickets. Johnny’s from Notre Dame, which means more season tickets. And you’re a Baptist from Texas. You have to understand.'”

One must understand that back in those days, money was always a prevalent issue. Teams weren’t worth nearly as much as they are today. Franchises folded left and right. Staying alive was about finding ways to sell tickets. With Notre Dame being one of the most popular colleges in that era, keeping Lujack had plenty of logic behind it. Nevermind the fact the guy was a war hero, having served in the Navy during World War II.

There was no reason at the time to think Lujack wouldn’t be good.

He was a three-time national champion in college and made All-Pro the first of three consecutive seasons in 1948. Halas was right to think his decision wasn’t the wrong one. Sadly, it was that faith in the school connection that would ultimately prove to be his undoing. In a move he would later declare his “biggest blunder,” the Bears owner traded Layne to the New York Bulldogs.

From there the quarterback ended up in Detroit where he would reach six Pro Bowls in his NFL career and helped them to win three championships in the 1950s. Meanwhile, Lujack appeared to be ascending as well. He set an NFL record with 11 rushing touchdowns by a QB in 1950. At the start of 1951, Luckman had finally retired. It was Lujack’s team now. Barely a few months later, that would no longer be the case.

One thing about Lujack was his commitment to continue playing had never been overly strong. His big fear was whether he could find a career that would last. This was true even when he started playing professionally.

“When I got out of Notre Dame, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do. There was the job with the Bears, of course. I was thrilled with the idea of playing for the great Chicago Bears. But even then I was looking beyond and wondering what I would do eventually. I wasn’t silly enough to think that heroes last forever.”

That flakiness would end up burning the Bears when Lujack abruptly retired at the age of 26. His reasoning was a return to Notre Dame at the behest of his former coach Frank Leahy to become an assistant. Lujack felt he owed the Irish legend for granting him a scholarship. Expectations were Leahy hired him to eventually become the successor as head coach.

The great irony is that didn’t happen.

Lujack was passed over for the job and he left the team shortly afterward in 1954. He admitted later that he wasn’t even all that interested in coaching to begin with. The man soon became a car salesman. The Bears, having been left high and dry, were forced to act quickly to fill the void he’d left behind. It is here where the decades-long disaster truly began to unfold.

Bob Williams: Chasing a shadow

The first sign that the Bears had lost their magic at finding quarterbacks wasn’t long in coming. With Lujack gone, Halas was forced to turn to Bob Williams as the new starter. Chicago had selected the Notre Dame quarterback 2nd overall in 1951. No doubt the Bears owner was really leaning into the Irish euphoria of that time and wanted to cash in.

The problem was such a pursuit robbed him of his credible eye for talent. Williams had been a great success in college, winning a national title and coming close to the Heisman trophy twice. There was confidence he could step in for Lujack. In the end, his career spanned a total of seven starts. Williams threw 87 passes in 1952 with 6 touchdowns and 5 interceptions, posting a 3-4 record.

A few months later he was in the United State Navy heading off to fight in Korea. Once again a Notre Dame QB had left Halas twisting in the wind. Yet that may not be what stings the most about the affair. If the Bears owner had operated with a clearer head in that 1951 draft, he might’ve noticed a far better quarterback sitting the board.

His name was Y.A. Tittle. After his original team folded the year before, he’d applied for entry into that draft. After the Bears took Williams at #2, the San Francisco 49ers grabbed him at #3 overall. He would end up a seven-time Pro Bowler and went on to the Hall of Fame.

Then again, it wasn’t like Halas needed another Hall of Famer.

George Blanda: A sign of Papa Bear’s age

When people hear the name George Blanda, most images conjured are of him in his 40s throwing the Oakland Raiders to improbable victories in the 1960 and ’70s. Most don’t remember the first half of his career. They don’t remember that he was a former 12th round pick who’d spent his first 10 years in Chicago. It’s a piece of info that doesn’t get around much.

So that begs the question. If the Bears had this guy on their roster, why didn’t they make him their featured QB? The simple answer is Halas didn’t like him. He and Blanda were constantly battling over contract issues. The Bears owner wasn’t impressed with him as a quarterback and wanted to use him primarily for his other job: kicking.

Blanda felt Halas was way too cheap and had lost his fire for the sport by the 1950s. Not to mention a belief the evolving game was quickly leaving him behind, especially in terms of passing offenses. It got so bad to a point where the coach actually took to humiliating Blanda during games.

“Once, the Bears were getting crushed in the second half and the crowd started to chant, ‘We want Blanda. We want Blanda.’ Halas looked down the bench and barked, ‘Blanda.’ George jumped to his feet and ran over to his coach, buckling his helmet. Halas jerked his thumb toward the stands and said, ‘Get up there. They’re calling for you.’ ”

Blanda started his last game for Chicago in 1954.

He retired in 1959 but soon returned to join the upstart American Football League with the Houston Oilers. He quickly became their starter and won two championships. Twice he threw for over 3,000 yards and even had 36 touchdowns in ‘1961. In total, he played 16 more seasons after leaving Chicago.

Oh, and his statements about Halas’ commitment to the game? They were proven true. The head coach retired in 1956. He spent two years away from the sidelines before he finally rediscovered his fire and returned. Ironically the same year Blanda left.

Ed Brown: Dawn of “okay is good enough”

Nobody would’ve imagined it at the time, but Bob Williams would end up being the last quarterback the Bears would take in the 1st round for the next 31 years. If that isn’t a surefire sign that Halas had lost at least some interest in the position, nothing is. During that time he would most often settle for cheaper options. What we might call the “okay is good enough” years.

Perhaps no player exemplifies this better than Ed Brown. A 6th round pick out of San Francisco in 1952, he eventually replaced Blanda as the starter in 1955. His numbers by today’s standards would be called atrocious, but back then when defenses were allowed to do whatever they wanted? He was viewed as competent. What the Bears liked about him was his ability to run the offense without constant oversight from the coaches.

“If the throwing of the … quarter back has been a big factor in the Bears’ success this season, his ball handling and play calling have played at least as important a role. … Brown occupies a position that is becoming progressively more unique in pro football — he calls all of the plays.”

Brown went to the Pro Bowl his first two years as a starter, scoring 23 touchdowns with 22 interceptions. He was also their punter during that time. This was enough to get the Bears back to their first NFL championship in 10 years during the ’56 season. Sadly his limitations and the weaker disposition of his teams during that period showed up as Chicago was annihilated by a superior New York Giants team 47-7.

A game in which he threw for just 97 yards and 2 interceptions.

That tendency to shrink against better teams haunted him the rest of his time as the starter. In 1958, the Bears had a chance to get back to the championship game. They finished one win short with an 8-4 record, bowing out to the Western champion Baltimore Colts. In both meetings that year, Brown threw a total of seven interceptions to just one touchdown. What stings about that is the ’58 team may actually have been better than the one in ’56.

They had the #1 defense in the league and an outstanding running game led by Rick Casares and Willie Galimore. The quarterback proved to be their Achilles heel. This would become a statement Bears fans became used to for decades to come.

Billy Wade: Game manager extraordinaire

By the end of 1960, Halas was back on the sidelines. He felt the team had something building in terms of talent and that the quarterback spot was an area in serious need of an upgrade. This time though he wasn’t willing to wait on the development of a rookie. He wanted a veteran with leadership and intelligence like Brown but was a better passer.

This led to Chicago trading for ex-Rams starter Billy Wade. Though he wasn’t gaudy in terms of numbers, the man did play well on some otherwise bad teams. One thing he developed a knack for was coming up clutch late in games. From 1958 to 1960, he had two 4th quarter comebacks and four game-winning drives.

The biggest reason though that Halas wanted him? He fit the profile of what people today would call a “game manager.” Wade wasn’t looking for big plays. He wanted to control the ball, move the chains, and wear opponents down. Former teammate Ed O’Bradovich said that was exactly what the Bears needed at the time.

“When we traded for Bill Wade, he was the right quarterback at the right time. He had the years behind him, he had the passing ability and he was a smart quarterback. The key was don’t make any turnovers. They converted on third down, they ate up the clock a little bit and that gave us some help. It was an offense that was so controlled with the short passes.

Wade was not a star.

Still, he was the first QB in years to play his Bears career throwing more TDs (68) than interceptions (66). His first three seasons were by far his best. His first year in 1961 he threw 22 touchdowns to 13 interceptions, posting a 93.7 passer rating. That proved to be a mark that would stand for the next 57 years when Mitch Trubisky finally broke it in 2018 with a 95.4. That alone should illustrate the state the position would be in soon enough.

Wade threw for 3,000 yards the next year and then in 1963 he earned his second All-Pro honor while guiding the Bears to the NFL championship. Fittingly it was a rematch against the Giants and their quarterback Y.A. Tittle. In frigid conditions, Wade completed just 10 of his 28 passes. However, he delivered when it counted with two QB sneaks for touchdowns.

Aided by one of the greatest defenses in franchise history, that would prove enough in a 14-10 victory. Wade may not have carried the team, but he etched a well-deserved place in history. After just one more season as a starter though, he was benched in favor of another.

Rudy Bukich: A man too late to the party

There are many great stories throughout NFL history, but Rudy Bukich is a wild one. Here’s a man who wasn’t even a quarterback in college, having played wingback during his two years at USC. Then in the final game of his college career in the Rose Bowl against Wisconsin, he was forced to take over passing duties when the starter broke his leg.

Bukich promptly guided the Trojans to a touchdown. The only score of the game. USC won and he was named Most Valuable Player. A few months later, the Los Angeles Rams drafted him in the 2nd round. As a quarterback. His timing though wasn’t the greatest.

Los Angeles already had future Hall of Famer Norm Van Brocklin under center. So rather than stick around as a backup, Bukich left football for two years to join the Army. He returned in 1956, spent one more year with the Rams before leaving to join the Washington Redskins. Again though, he’d picked his moment poorly.

Eddie LeBaron was their starter at that point, a four-time Pro Bowler. All Bukich could do was accept his role as the #2 guy. Eventually, he left Washington via trade to the Bears midway through 1958. This was where Halas got his first look at the quarterback. That experiment lasted through the next season but Bukich was soon moved to Pittsburgh where, once again, he was backing up a legend. This time the aging Bobby Layne.

How ironic, eh?

However, Halas made it clear to him before the trade that it wasn’t permanent. He planned to bring Bukich back when the QB depth chart was less crowded.

“Mr. Halas told me it was only temporary,” Bukich recalls. “He said he would get me back in a couple of years. I didn’t believe it at the time, but he was true to his word.”

Indeed he was. The Bears traded to get him back in 1962 where he became Wade’s backup. This was a role he’d grown used to by then, but signs soon began to appear that others on the team would’ve preferred those roles were flipped. Though he didn’t play a lot, when he did there was substantial evidence he was the superior passer.

For example, the Bears trailed Baltimore 3-0 in their 1963 season home opener. Wade was 5-of-21 throwing and looked completely lost. Halas sent Bukich in. He immediately struck with a 44-yard touchdown pass that proved the difference in the game. Teammates found it hard not to notice and some weren’t afraid to say so publicly.

“Bukich was a favorite of teammates and tight end Mike Ditka once incensed coach George Halas when he stated publicly that he preferred Bukich to Wade.”

Halas, who was fiercely loyal to Wade, held off as long as he could but by the end of 1964, it was clear the man was no longer effective. Thus Bukich became the starter. This resulted in one of the best passing seasons of the decade for a Bears QB. In 1965, he threw for 2,641 yards with 20 touchdowns and nine interceptions, tying Wade’s mark of a 93.7 passer rating. It looked like Chicago had their next guy. There was just one problem.

Bukich was 35-years old.

The next season, the magic he’d had was gone. He threw for 10 touchdowns to 21 interceptions and was demoted to backup after that. It’s hard not to wonder what might’ve happened if Bukich got his opportunity sooner. Maybe if Halas had been more open-minded back during his first stint in the late ’50s, his NFL career might’ve been different. Sadly his remarkable bad luck for joining teams when they already had Pro Bowlers in place became the epitaph of his career.

Jack Concannon: That guy Mike Ditka was traded for

Halas had hoped to improve the Bears’ quarterback situation by 1967 in an effort to ease the pressure on star running back Gale Sayers. His solution to the problem actually ended up being one of the worst moves of an otherwise peerless career. Tired of battling Mike Ditka over contract issues, Halas traded him to the Philadelphia Eagles for Jack Concannon.

A Hall of Fame tight end for a backup QB.

One has to question Halas’ true commitment to the game by this point. That season would be his last as a coach. He retired for good when it ended. So it’s hard not to think his head wasn’t in the right place at that time. After all, this was a man who’d tolerated personalities like Doug Atkins for years. Clearly, he was burned out and simply got sick of dealing with players on such issues.

None of this was Concannon’s fault, of course. He came in committed to making the most of his opportunity. There’s just one thing. He was a backup for a reason. When one can’t overtake Norm Snead (career passer rating 65.5) for the starting job, one can assume he might not me your answer under center.

Jim Dooley, who replaced Halas as head coach from 1968 to 1971, put it best.

“He wasn’t the greatest of passers but he had ability. With the way quarterbacks today have made the game wide open with the shotgun, rollouts and bootlegs, he would have made it today.”

Concannon was another of those hybrid players Halas loved. Running backs who could also throw the ball better than average. He just wasn’t all that special in that second part. His audition in ’67 went poorly, only throwing 6 touchdowns to 14 interceptions. The Bears demoted him at times over the next two years, fighting for time with Virgil Carter.

He did regain the job in 1970 but didn’t do much with it. His time in Chicago ended with a 17-22-1 record and 52 touchdown passes to 93 interceptions.

Virgil Carter: The ticking time bomb

There were many times where the Bears quarterback position was in a state of turmoil and the late 1960s was the perfect example. While Concannon was busy underwhelming people, 6th round pick Virgil Carter had thought he’d done enough during the ’68 season to claim the job after winning four-straight games. Unfortunately, he had the bad luck to break his ankle in November, creating a controversy going into 1969.

Head coach Jim Dooley seemed more comfortable with Concannon and so went with him to start. However, as things began to snowball downhill following an 0-4 start, it seemed like Carter would get a chance to play. That is until Dooley went with rookie Bobby Douglass instead. This incensed Carter but he didn’t let it show. At least not right away.

His opportunity finally did come in December when he started in San Francisco. A game where he threw for 301 yards and two touchdowns. He also had three interceptions though as the Bears were blown out 42-21. The next week, the explosion finally came.

The whole sorry kettle of fish boiled over the next week when Carter, who says he was promised the whole game, was pulled at halftime of a 21-3 loss to the Packers in Wrigley Field. In one of the more infamous locker room scenes of all time, the usually mild-mannered Carter went ballistic, calling Dooley “gutless and a liar.”

While Concannon sat nearby cooing, “Where you gonna be next year, Virgil?” Carter snapped: “Anywhere but here.”

When reporters asked about the fact that Halas still had an option in his contract to return for one more year, the quarterback sealed his fate.

“I hope he wouldn’t be chicken shit enough to do that.”

Carter was traded to the Cincinnati Bengals.

There he eventually became their starter and led them to the playoffs (throwing 9 TDs and 9 INTs) in 1970. He later bolted for the World Football League in 1974 where he threw 27 touchdowns in 11 games. Amazingly, Carter returned to the Bears in 1976. One of the final passes of his career came on a 55-yard touchdown in a 34-7 romping of Seattle. A weird ending to one of the weirdest QB careers of that time.

Bobby Douglass: Just wing it

In terms of pure arm talent, a case can be made that Bobby Douglass had the best one in Bears history. Anybody who saw him truly cut it loose back in the early 1970s would understand. He had a cannon for a left arm, able to go 60 yards down the field with ease. Odds were he could get it 90 to 100 yards in the right conditions. Teams would’ve salivated over him today.

They would’ve encountered the same problem though.

Douglass wasn’t the best learner.

The man himself admitted that he lacked the patience to absorb teaching from his coaches, which is why he always struggled with playbooks. More often than not he was prone to just drawing things up in the dirt or improvising on the fly. One can imagine this drove his coaches crazy. So how in the world did he survive as the starter for three seasons?

Douglass was an exceptionally rare athlete. Not only did he have that rocket arm. He also was 6’4, 225 lbs and could run like the wind. People today might call him the first Michael Vick. A guy defenses were scared to go against because he was so dangerous on the move. Between 1971 and 1974, he ran for 2,007 yards and 17 touchdowns including a then-NFL record 968 yards in ’72.

The guy was entertainment personified.

Nobody had any clue what he was going to do from one play to the next. His limitations as a passer though held the team back. He barely completed 41% of his passes with 19 touchdowns and 34 interceptions, averaging just 88.9 yards per game. To be fair he played on some really bad teams but his lack of accuracy and inability to hone his game ended up costing him in the long-term.

He believes though that he simply came around in the wrong era. With the rules they have now and the more diverse offenses? He feels he would’ve thrived.

“I’m not sure I wouldn’t have a 1,500-yard [rushing] season, because they spread the field so much. It’s so much easier to scramble. Plus, they’ve put a lot of rules in that help the quarterback and help the line with things they couldn’t do in the 70s.”

That would’ve been something to watch. Not that it would’ve won a lot of games. Douglass went 10-22-1 as a starter. So in 1974, they made a change.

Gary Huff: Trapped in the past

Blaming the quarterbacks for everything is easy enough, but it isn’t the reality. For all the problems they themselves had, the Bears were just as guilty for the string of disasters due in large part to their inability to adjust with the times. By the 1970s, it was becoming clear that the NFL was transitioning more and more towards the passing game.

Offenses were becoming more sophisticated. Route running by receivers gained complexity. Audibles grew more numerous and the shotgun formation rose in popularity. Had the Bears embraced such trends, maybe Gary Huff would’ve had more success. Or at least that’s what he believes.

”It`s a mystery to me still why they drafted me,” he said. ”We never ran an offense that was anything but conservative, entirely run-oriented.

”We didn`t even have audibles in those days because there was no passing scheme. There were no adjustments to throw the ball. And yet I wouldn`t trade the experience. I was happy in Chicago.”

Huff was a 2nd round pick out of Florida State in 1973. He’d led the nation in touchdown passes two-straight years in college and threw for over 6,300 yards. A lot for those days. It’s no surprise he was confident he could turn things around in Chicago once he got his opportunity. Yet when it came, he was unequal to the task.

Huff can blame the bland offenses he played in, but the fact is he just wasn’t all that great. While he had a decent arm and size, his decision-making left a lot to be desired. Too often he would put the ball up for grabs and the defense would come down with it. In 22 starts, he went 5-17 with 12 touchdowns and 34 interceptions.

Huff’s biggest claim to fame came after leaving Chicago in 1977? As the starter in Tampa Bay, he helped the Buccaneers to their first win in franchise history. A game in which he threw a total of nine passes. One would think he represented the low point for Bears quarterbacking.

Amazingly, the years that followed would make such a notion laughable.