Is the New England Patriots' Answer in Chicago?

The Patriots are looking to supplement their offense with a starting quarterback after Tom Brady's season ended yesterday. They've put out calls to Chris Simms and Tim Rattay.

WHAT??

A guy who was nearly broken last year in Tampa and a career journeyman?

What the Patriots need at quarterback is a guy who's played in big games and has a big arm. They need...

Rex Grossman.

Yeah, I said it. Rex Grossman to the New England Patriots. How does this work? Let's take a look at a few things.

Grossman has a one-year contract and isn't happy sitting behind Orton in Chicago. This means, when Brady's healthy next year (hopefully), the Pats don't have a congested backfield; Grossman ends up a free agent, just like he would in Chicago. A rental with Super Bowl experience? Perfect.

Most importantly, let's look at why Rex Grossman has had limited success in Chicago. I personally saw Grossman play in high school in Indianapolis, and he spent the majority of his time in the shotgun. He then went to Florida, where, under happy-chucking Steve Spurrier in a high-flying SEC, he spent more time in the shotgun.

His height has always been an issue, which has probably been a reason that coaches have wisely put his cannon of a right arm in position to fire at will. However, any analyst or coach or player will tell you that the largest adjustment a young quarterback has to make moving to the NFL is adjusting his footwork to the speed of the NFL game.

Consider this: Grossman took approximately 30 percent of his snaps between high school and college under center, and he then game to the Chicago Bears, where Olin Kreutz refused to snap the ball to the shotgun.

So now a kid who barely ever used a seven or 12-step drop has to learn it AND how to read an NFL defense AND the NFL playbook. Now let's add onto these handicaps the fact that Grossman got hurt in each of his first three seasons, further retarding his learning curve.

When the Bears went to the Super Bowl, Grossman had good weapons around him and good blocking in front of him. When he got into trouble was when he tried to make up for poor footwork with only his arm strength—someone told him he was Brett Favre's son and he believed it.

If you take the happy-chucking kid who was third in the Heisman Trophy voting as a sophomore at Florida in the New England offense, where he'll have a system and weapons very similar to what he had at Florida, what could he do with his arm? Randy Moss could run for weeks, and Grossman would wear out his rotator cuff trying to throw the ball to Baltimore.

What would it take to get him out of Chicago? Maybe a fifth-round draft pick...probably a sixth. For a rental with Super Bowl experience?

Finally, consider why Chicago would want to do this. They have an unhappy quarterback on their bench who has almost zero favor with the fans in Chicago. They have what appears to be a nice rookie in Caleb Haney, and the Bears could afford to put some money on the table for a Chris Simms or Tim Rattay to be what they are: a backup quarterback.

Any quarterback controversy in Chicago would be solved by the deal, allowing the Bears to fully commit to the Kyle Orton era. The Pats could get a good, younger quarterback with a big arm and an expiring contract for cheap.

Sounds like a win-win to me.