It is fitting for Phillip Daniels and Kordell Stewart to depart the Bears on the same day, reminders that what ailed the Bears when they arrived ails them still.
Daniels was hired in 2000 to rush the passer. Stewart was hired in 2003 to be the passer. All they did was pass through.
Daniels had 23 sacks in 59 games. When he arrived from Seattle at age 26, he had 21.5 sacks in 60 games. He had 2, then 4, then 6.5, then 9, so the Bears paid him a bonus of $8 million, gambling on continued improvement. Instead, his Bear numbers were 6, 9, 5.5 and 2.5, and he does not fit Lovie Smith’s defense.
Daniels arrived on Mark Hatley’s personnel watch, but Stewart was Jerry Angelo’s failed answer to a Bears problem older than Chris Chandler.
You can blame Dick Jauron and you can blame his offensive coordinator, John Shoop, and you can even blame the one-year QBs coach, Greg Olson. But everybody in football knew Stewart was going to be a square peg that would have to be forced into a round huddle no matter where he landed.
Angelo chose Stewart over Jake Delhomme because Stewart had played 114 games and Delhomme only six. But it was a gamble either way.
The Bears think they have solved the passer problem because rookie Rex Grossman won his first two starts before getting hurt in the season finale. Maybe so. Angelo is certainly counting on it.
As for the pass rusher, that is Smith’s problem now.