The report that the Bears might consider signing Donovan McNabb doesn’t sound like a great idea to one of the Bears’ starting receivers.
Devin Hester said on Mike and Mike in the Morning that he doesn’t think there’s any way McNabb could show up in Chicago this week and get up to speed fast enough with the Bears’ offense to make a difference. And Hester even suggested that McNabb’s arrival could be counterproductive, as any time spent working with McNabb would take away from time the rest of the offense needs to work with Caleb Hanie, who is struggling in his role as the replacement for the injured Jay Cutler.
“It’s going to be tough right now to pick up a quarterback that hasn’t played in the Mike Martz offense,” Hester said. “This is a difficult offense to run, so as far as a quarterback who hasn’t played in the offense, right now it’s going to be a waste of time.”
Hester makes a good point, although one of the problems the Bears have had in their two losses with Hanie under center is that they’re adhering too strictly to the Mike Martz offense. What the Bears need to do is start running an offense that fits Hanie: Martz hasn’t changed much to account for the fact that Hanie isn’t nearly as good a passer as Cutler, and he also isn’t calling enough plays to take advantage of the fact that Hanie is a better runner than Cutler.
And if Hanie just plain isn’t good enough, then it’s Martz’s job to find a way to put points on the board with a different style of offense. Maybe that means snapping the ball to Hester in a wildcat formation. Maybe that means a series of nothing but handoffs to Marion Barber in the I formation. Maybe that means taking a cue from the Broncos and giving Hanie some Tim Tebow-style read options to run.
But it doesn’t mean signing McNabb.
“We’re going to stick with the guys we got right now and hope we get better with those guys,” Hester said.
If the Bears don’t get better with the guys they have, what looked like a very promising season is going to end very badly.