The Right to Arm Bears Trivia Quiz

Answer:

In 1991, the Chicago Bears still had quarterback Jim McMahon at the helm. He was their starting quarterback for their legendary 1985 team too. The following year, McMahon had an injury and Peter Tom Willis, a former Florida State Seminole, started two games in 1992 and one game in 1993. In 1995, Steve Walsh, a quarterback who led the Miami Hurricanes to a national championship, was the starting QB for Chicago. The following year saw Erik Kramer take over the starting job and he not only started all sixteen games but set a Chicago Bears record at the time for most passing yards in a season with 3,838. The record stood until Caleb Williams broke the record almost 30 years later.

Between 1998 and 2001, the Chicago Bears had little stability at the position. Some combination of Cade McNown, Shane Matthews, and Jim Miller started games during each season. Between 2003 to 2008, Rex Grossman, a former Florida Gator, started a portion of games each season including all sixteen games in 2006. 2009 brought on the Jay Cutler era and he was the closest the Bears have come to having a consistent stable starter. Between 2014 and 2016, two of the most highly decorated college quarterbacks made spot starts for Chicago as Matt Barkley from USC and Jimmy Clausen from Notre Dame led the way.

Mitchell Trubisky was a high draft pick in 2017 and shared the starting role with Mike Glennon. He ran the team until they once again invested a first round pick on a starting quarterback in 2021 and selected Justin Fields from Ohio State. In 2022, the Bears sent out Nathan Peterman. He had previously had one of the worst quarterback performances of all-time in his debut game with the Bills when threw five interceptions and no touchdowns. For his lone start with Chicago, he lost to Minnesota 29 to 13. The team drafted Caleb Williams with the first pick in the 2024 draft.

The wrong answers included quarterbacks who started for teams in the NFC Central, the Bears' division. Gus Frerotte and Dan Orlovsky. were all starters for the Detroit Lions during this time period. Matt Flynn made a record breaking start for the Green Bay Packers. The Minnesota Vikings who almost had as many quarterback starters as the Bears during this era, trotted out Bridgewater, Dobbs, and Bradford.