| 21 July 2010
The Bears went out and signed what is likely to become a try out training camp QB in Mike Teel. Teel has already been with two other teams during his NFL tenure. He was drafted by the Seahawks in the 2009 and played in three pre-season games completing 20 of 41 passes (48.8%) for 238 yards and 3 touchdowns.
He was released by the Seahawks and then picked up by the Patriots in May only to be released in June.
I talked to Chris Sullivan at Seahawkaddicts.com in regards to Teel to get his take:
Teel is a very average quarterback with solid intangibles. He doesn't have good mobility, doesn't have a good deep ball, and, really, he just doesn't have any superb tools at his disposal. That said, he's smart and has pretty high football IQ. Didn't make a ton of mistakes in college and didn't screw up too hard in preseason with the Seahawks. He is not dissimilar to Matt Cassel - middling skills but could thrive in the right environment.
Seahawk fans were excited about his success at Rutgers (with solid tools surrounding him). He put the team on his back and found ways to win. Had he come out of the draft after the 2007 season, he would have been a 2nd - 4th round pick. He stayed in and Rutgers stunk it up for the first five games of the season. He then put the team on his back (more so) and led them to, I believe,7 straight wins and a bowl berth. That's what excites about Mr. Teel.
Ultimately, he's probably not long for this league but, again, neither is $64 million Matt Cassel. Teel seems to fit a modified West Coast system better than Martz' offense, but there's a lot to like in him and with the right investment, he could end up a success in the league. That said, it's as unlikely as any other 6th round QB in the Modern NFL.
Based on that information it's quite clear that this is a Tim Ruskell move rather than a Mike Martz idea. Ruskell liked Teel in Seattle and obviously felt it was a good idea to see how he would do here in Chicago. I don't think Teel will make much of an impact here other than to fill a role for training camp and take reps away from Caleb Hanie or Dan LeFevour. Martz pointed out he wanted a veteran QB here and that makes sense given there are already two young QBs behind Cutler.
This looks like it's the first questionable move by Ruskell because all this really does is take away valuable developmental reps from Hanie and LeFevour. Teel doesn't know the Martz offense anymore than LeFevour does and how he'll manage to catch up on the learning curve given the Bears have been through OTAs and mini-camp is also questionable. Three quarterbacks is enough for training camp and the pre-season as is two players within their first three years in the league.
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