If Lovie Smith needs guidance about how a winning team handles a dicey quarterback “situation,” there are precedents. The Bears’ coach doesn’t have to follow the advice of fans or columnists or talk shows. He can look it up.
A good place to start is Super Bowl winners. Not every team that wins a Super Bowl has smooth sailing at the most important position. Most of them do, but not all of them. More than one Super Bowl winner has changed quarterbacks by coaching decision, not just injury.
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When rookie Kyle Orton inherited the Bears’ job from ineffective Chad Hutchinson after Rex Grossman got hurt, the hope was for another Ben Roethlisberger, who went undefeated as a Pittsburgh rookie last season until losing in the AFC title game. Hutchinson was supposed to be another Kurt Warner, the inexperienced journeyman who took over the 1999 St. Louis Rams for injured Trent Green in the preseason and won the Super Bowl.
Scratch those two scenarios. That history hasn’t repeated itself. The Bears are 9-4 with Orton, but observers have noticed the offense is struggling.
The 2000 Baltimore Ravens are Exhibit A. Tony Banks started the season and the Ravens were 5-3 in the first half. But the offense had not scored a touchdown in four consecutive games when coach Brian Billick replaced Banks with Trent Dilfer. In Dilfer’s first start, the Ravens lost a third straight game, 9-6 to Pittsburgh, and the offense still didn’t score.
But Dilfer threw three touchdown passes the next week and the Ravens won 11 games in a row, including the Super Bowl.
Tom Brady got his job in New England when Drew Bledsoe got hurt in 2001. By the time Bledsoe got healthy, coach Bill Belichick decided his sixth-round draft choice was better than his first-rounder, and Brady has started 84 straight games, including three Super Bowls.
The 1987 Washington Redskins started Jay Schroeder, who hurt his shoulder in the opener but returned after the three-game player strike to win three of his next four starts. But coach Joe Gibbs had Doug Williams bail him out in the fourth start and Williams started the next week.
Williams strained his back, so Schroeder regained the job and won three games in a row, throwing three touchdown passes, then two touchdown passes, then one touchdown pass. Nevertheless, after losing his fourth start and struggling against Minnesota and current Bears quarterbacks coach Wade Wilson in the season finale, Schroeder again was bailed out by Williams, whose 51-yard TD pass to Ricky Sanders sent the game into an overtime the Redskins won.
With two healthy quarterbacks, Gibbs chose Williams in the playoffs, and he set Super Bowl records.
The 1980 Oakland Raiders started Dan Pastorini, who was 2-3 and not very effective when he got hurt. Jim Plunkett took over and the Raiders went 13-2, with victories in four playoff games.
Even the perfect 1972 Miami Dolphins had quarterback issues. Super-sub Earl Morrall started nine games after starter Bob Griese got hurt. Healthy for the playoffs, Griese played the second half of the AFC title game after Morrall played the first. Griese started the Super Bowl.
Sometimes change by choice turns out better than change by necessity. But not always. If Smith is conflicted about what to do, he better not talk to Mike Ditka. In 1984, Ditka had to use five quarterbacks including one, Rusty Lisch, whom he had to beg to go back into a game after Ditka had berated and offended him. In 1986, Ditka decided Doug Flutie would ride in on a Shetland pony and save the day.
In his 10 years in the NFL, Smith has seen a few unusual quarterback changes himself. He was Tampa Bay’s linebackers coach in 1999 when Dilfer got hurt. Rookie Shaun King hadn’t played at all in the first 10 games, but he led the Bucs to the NFC title game–in St. Louis against Warner. The Bucs lost 11-6, Smith’s kind of game. King never played any better than he did as a rookie and is now out of the league.
In 2002-03, when Smith was defensive coordinator of the Rams, he saw the sudden demise of two-time league MVP Warner and the rise of another unsung quarterback, Marc Bulger.
If Smith is wondering how Grossman might do, he could follow the example of Tom Landry, the signature coach of the Dallas Cowboys.
In 1971, when Ditka was playing for the Cowboys, they came into Soldier Field with a 4-2 record but no clear idea whether Craig Morton or Roger Staubach was their quarterback.
Landry decided to alternate Morton and Staubach on every play, more of a non-decision to cure his indecision. The Bears won 23-19, knocking the Cowboys to 4-3. Landry was laughed out of Chicago, but the experiment paid off.
The next week, Landry named Staubach his starter and Dallas won 10 in a row, including their first Super Bowl. Staubach and Landry both ended up in the Hall of Fame.
Coaching genius arrives in all kinds of ways, usually with the right quarterback attached some way, somehow.
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