The Chicago Bears needed a quarterback. Imagine that. They also needed a tight end. Determined to fill both needs during the 1997 NFL offseason, the Bears had fateful decisions to make. Very fateful decisions.
If they decided to use their first-round pick for a tight end, they would most likely select Cal’s Tony Gonzalez with the 11th overall choice, then use their second-round pick for Arizona State quarterback Jake “The Snake” Plummer. But if they decided to make quarterback the higher priority, they would trade the 11th pick to the Seattle Seahawks for Rick Mirer, who they preferred over the underwhelming college prospects available that year.
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Spoiler alert: The Bears did not select Gonzalez, whose bust currently resides in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, or Plummer, the only quarterback from the 1997 draft to start more than 10 games in the league. They instead came away with Mirer and second-round tight end John Allred, who finished his career with 30 receptions, or 1,295 fewer than Gonzalez collected.
It all seems so simple now. It was not so simple then.
Two decades before the Bears would trade up to select Mitch Trubisky when they could have had Patrick Mahomes or Deshaun Watson, the organization traded the 11th choice in the 1997 draft to Seattle for a fourth-round pick and Mirer, whose tenure with the Bears would include three starts, zero touchdown passes, a single touchdown drive, six interceptions and a whole lot of opportunity cost.
‘The Ryan Tannehill of today’
Acquiring Mirer from the Seahawks in February 1997 was supposed to alter the Bears’ quarterback history for the better. Instead, it kept them on the road to nowhere. A former No. 2 overall choice from Notre Dame, Mirer had been the 1993 NFL Co-Rookie of the Year with top choice Drew Bledsoe, only to have his career tank for reasons that included a difficult situation in Seattle and his own shortcomings.
The Bears, having lost productive incumbent starter Erik Kramer to a career-threatening broken neck during the 1996 season, convinced themselves that Mirer could be salvaged and lead them back to the playoffs under coach Dave Wannstedt. None other than Bill Walsh, who had fared decently with another quarterback from Notre Dame years earlier, declared that Mirer, if handled properly, could enjoy a career revival like the one Bears castoff Jim Harbaugh experienced with Indianapolis.
“I was hoping Rick Mirer could be the Ryan Tannehill of today,” Wannstedt said recently.
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By most accounts, Mirer’s confidence was shot after struggling with a Seattle team that fielded the worst offense in modern league history the year before his arrival. The 1992 Seahawks earned the second pick in the 1993 draft by averaging 8.8 points per game, still the lowest for any team since the league went to a 16-game schedule in 1978. Their ownership, led by California real-estate mogul Ken Behring, was arguably the worst in the league.
Rick Mirer was the No. 2 pick in the 1993 draft, but the Notre Dame product only lasted four years in Seattle. (Gary Stewart / Associated Press)While Mirer’s rookie contract famously included a clause guaranteeing payment “up to and including the end of the world,” his run in Seattle effectively expired after Mirer completed 10 of 30 passes with four interceptions against Green Bay during the 1996 season. After the game, in a Kingdome suite where team brass would unwind after the final whistle, coach Dennis Erickson and vice president Randy Mueller made eye contact and knew without saying a word that the end for Mirer had arrived. The early promise Mirer had shown under previous coach Tom Flores was no longer enough, although first-round pedigrees die hard.
“It is not very often that teams are going to give away a talented player unless there are issues,” said Rod Graves, the Bears’ vice president of player personnel at the time. “It works in some cases, but it is something you have to be extremely careful about.”
49ers had interest
By that 1997 offseason, Mirer’s agents were trying to steer their client toward the San Francisco 49ers, where Walsh was in the front office under president/CEO Carmen Policy.
“I remember a specific call with Carmen Policy,” Mueller said. “I called (Seahawks exec) Mickey (Loomis) into the room and we put Carmen on speaker. (Carmen) was trying to make a case for us sending Rick there for a second-round pick, selling us on how it would be for the good of the deal, where the kid wanted to go, but it was clearly orchestrated by the agents. The 49ers wouldn’t even offer a first-round pick.”
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San Francisco never upped its offer from a second-round choice, instead using its first-round pick for Jim Druckenmiller, who started fewer games in the NFL (one) than Mirer would start during his ill-fated single season with the Bears. It would come out after the draft that Walsh had preferred Plummer while vice president Dwight Clark, who would soon leave to become the Cleveland Browns’ general manager, preferred Druckenmiller. The 49ers did wind up using a 1997 second-round choice for a player from Notre Dame, but that player was fullback Marc Edwards, not Mirer.
The Seahawks turned to free agency, signing future Hall of Famer Warren Moon, who would toss 25 touchdown passes that season while leading the league in yards per game.
A fateful meeting
The Bears, led by president Mike McCaskey and vice president Ted Phillips, employed a scouting staff headed by Graves, now head of the Fritz Pollard Alliance, and also featuring pro scout Mike McCartney, now the agent for Kirk Cousins and others. It was a tumultuous time. Wannstedt, entering his fifth season with a 32-32 record to that point, was the top football decision-maker until after the draft when Graves resigned and was replaced by Mark Hatley. The major decisions went through Phillips and a McCaskey, same as today.
“We did not feel confident we could orchestrate something in the draft that would yield a quarterback, which we desperately needed,” Graves said. “You have to feel like there are enough options there. If you go in there with one name in mind, I mean, you are completely rolling the dice.”
It was a terrible year to need a quarterback. Druckenmiller was the only one drafted among the top 40 selections. He went 26th to the 49ers. Plummer was the next quarterback off the board, to Arizona at No. 42 (Chicago entered the draft holding the 40th pick). Elvis Grbac, Jeff George, Heath Shuler and a broken-down Jeff Hostetler were the other notable veterans available. As for Mirer, the Seahawks took the unusual step of allowing the quarterback to meet with Wannstedt and Bears coaches in person before a trade was in place. That meeting proved critical for the Bears as they weighed unappealing options.
Rick Mirer meets the Chicago media in May 1997. (Jonathan Daniel / Allsport via Getty Images)“I don’t think any of our guys had any prior relationship with Rick,” Graves said. “That meeting was really paramount in terms of making the decision about it, and as it turned out, we didn’t get it right.”
The Bears could have gambled on Kramer staying healthy. They could have reached for Druckenmiller. They could have hoped Plummer would be there when they picked in the second round (they traded up from 40th to 38th, where they selected Allred). They could have plugged in one of those other veterans. They bet on a highly drafted young prospect faring better in new surroundings.
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“Rick was as physically and mentally talented as anybody that came out at that time,” said Don Yee, who teamed with Marvin Demoff in representing Mirer at the time. “The scouting on him was not incorrect. But for a quarterback to succeed, a lot of other things have to be right.”
Shades of Wentz
The Bears zeroed in on Mirer as a former No. 2 overall pick who might be salvaged, betting that their coaches could get more from him. Mirer had played only four seasons. He was not yet 27 years old. Perhaps a move back to his Midwest roots would prove helpful. If that sounds a bit like the Bears’ recent predicament as rumors of a potential deal for 2016 No. 2 overall choice Carson Wentz lingered, that is the point.
While Wentz landed with Indianapolis ultimately, nothing much has changed for the Bears at quarterback going back decades, despite earnest efforts to upgrade with players such as Trubisky, Jay Cutler, Rex Grossman, Cade McNown and Mirer. You either have a guy or think you have a guy, or you’re desperate.
“When we got into talks about signing Rick, I talked to his (former) coach in Seattle, Tom Flores, and his offensive coordinator, Larry Kennan,” Wannstedt said. “We were running the ball and throwing play-action passes, and he was an athlete, and everybody was positive about him. I really was convinced that Rick Mirer would be the type of person and an upgrade and fit into the style of offense that we were going to run. The only thing, and I was not really involved in this, was what we ended up giving up for him. I was a little bit surprised that happened.”
Evaluators at the time liked Mirer’s physical traits, especially his mobility, while questioning whether he could transfer classroom learning to the field. They worried about his instincts for the game and his ability to persevere through unfavorable circumstances. Could the Bears’ coaching staff reach him?
“What Seattle was willing to do was allow us to spend a day with Rick before we would actually buy in, and the coaching staff came away convinced they could get it done with him,” Graves said. “That is what led to the decision. It wasn’t Mike McCaskey driving that or anything along those lines. Mike put his stamp on it after the rest of us told him we could get it done.”
Everyone knew the Bears were desperate. According to people familiar with the negotiations, Mirer’s agents were the ones who insisted upon Chicago receiving a fourth-round pick from Seattle as part of the deal to even it out. Demoff and Yee possessed leverage because Seattle and Chicago needed Mirer to reach an agreement on a new contract with the Bears in order for the trade to work. Not that price matters much when it comes to quarterbacks. Had Mirer succeeded in Chicago, no one would have cared whether the team traded one first-round pick or three, let alone received a fourth-rounder in return.
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Hope and the usual cynicism
As the Bears finalized a three-year contract for the quarterback who would, if all went to plan, finally solve their perpetual void at the position, the Chicago Tribune splashed across the front of its sports section an old photo of Sid Luckman, ball in hand, arm cocked, about to deliver a pass decades earlier.
“Fresh out of Luckmans,” the headline read.
“Bears’ history at QB: Bungled moves pave way for sorry lot,” the sub-headline added.
This Feb. 16, 1997 sports section included a timeline laying out the Bears’ troubled history at the position since Luckman retired following the 1950 season on his way to the Hall of Fame. Here we are in 2021 and the Bears remain fresh out of Luckmans, still known for bungled moves that have, in the words of the Tribune, paved the way for a sorry lot. If there’s a common denominator, it’s the Bears.
“Mirer wants to end his career in Chicago,” Tribune columnist Bernie Lincicome wrote then. “Pick a month. Be optimistic. Take November.”
Try August. Some assumed Mirer’s arrival meant Kramer would not return. Instead, Kramer re-signed with the team, declared through agent Tom Condon that the Bears were his team and won the starting job heading into Week 1.
Patriots quarterback Drew Bledsoe tries to give his Chicago counterpart Rick Mirer some encouragement after New England’s 31-3 victory over the Bears in 1997. (Jim Davis / The Boston Globe via Getty Images)The Bears had traded the 11th pick in the draft, which otherwise plausibly would have been used to select one of the greatest tight ends in league history, for a quarterback who had ranked last in passer rating the year before and would sink to third-string behind Steve Stenstrom by midseason. Mirer was a reclamation project who could have used elite offensive coaching, a strong supporting cast and time. Instead, he would make his Chicago starting debut on the road against the undefeated defending AFC champion New England Patriots, without his No. 1 receiver. Mirer’s final start with the team came two weeks later on the road in prime time against the Mike Ditka-coached New Orleans Saints. A three-year contract, for three starts.
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“When a quarterback loses his confidence, he either needs an unbelievable coach or a change of scenery,” McCartney said. “We said, ‘Let’s get Rick a change of scenery, but he can’t really have competition. It has to be his football team because it’s going to take some time.’ We all agreed and then we get into free agency and Erik Kramer was available.”
Kramer had set single-season franchise records for completions, attempts, yards and touchdowns in 1995, but there were questions about his ability to hold up physically. Wannstedt wanted him back. It was clear from the earliest camp practices that Kramer was right. He wasn’t there to mentor Mirer as part of some career reclamation effort. He was there to retake his job, period, and he did.
“At the end of the day, whether you call it confidence or whatever it is, there is something inside great players that really sort of motivates them beyond the moment,” Graves said. “I experienced that with Kurt Warner in Arizona. We really assumed at the time when we signed Kurt that we were bringing in the backup to Matt Leinart, who we had drafted. Kurt was coming off some tough years, but he was as determined as anybody that he could still play and that he was going to be our starting quarterback. Rick didn’t have that same type of cachet or bravado about him, the confidence level.”
What could have been
Seattle used the 11th pick to move up into the third overall slot for cornerback Shawn Springs, who started 155 games over 13 seasons and made one Pro Bowl. Gonzalez fell to the Kansas City Chiefs at No. 13 and would start 254 games over 17 seasons, becoming a 14-time Pro Bowler.
McCartney: “We would have taken Tony Gonzalez. We could have wound up with Tony Gonzalez and Jake Plummer instead of Rick Mirer and John Allred.”
Wannstedt: “Oh, yeah, absolutely, absolutely. We knew we needed a tight end and we knew we needed a quarterback so that probably would have been the discussion at that point, absolutely.”
Graves: “I don’t discount that at all. I’m not sure who was on the board at that particular time, but I do know that we didn’t feel we were in a position to really be assured of a quarterback.”
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Peyton Manning or bust?
The Bears had whiffed in the 1997 draft, but there was still hope. The race was on for the No. 1 pick in 1998 as the Bears started 0-7. They were 3-11 heading into a Sunday night game against the 4-10 Rams when Wannstedt announced that Mirer would get second-half reps in the final two games.
“There were people in our building who thought we were putting in Mirer to lose the game against the Rams,” McCartney said. “Did everybody think that? I can’t tell you, but if we lose that game, we finish 3-13 and we have a chance at either Peyton Manning or Ryan Leaf.”
In the less than nine months since the team had acquired Mirer, the Bears had re-signed Mirer’s record-setting predecessor (Kramer) and named him the starter, replaced their highest-ranking evaluator (Graves), lost No. 1 receiver Curtis Conway to a broken collarbone, lost running back Rashaan Salaam to a broken leg, started and benched Mirer, demoted Mirer to third-string and lost seven consecutive games in a season for only the second time in their history.
In 1998, the Bears had four quarterbacks at training camp (left to right): Moses Moreno, Rick Mirer, Steve Stenstrom and Erik Kramer. Mirer was cut in late August. (Matthew Stockman / Allsport via Getty Images)Week 16 brought an unfortunate prime-time matchup against a Rams team that was so bad, third-down back Amp Lee was their leading receiver. Sweet defeat was nonetheless within sight for the Bears when, as promised, Mirer replaced Kramer during the third quarter of a 7-7 game. He completed 1 of 7 passes for 8 yards and an interception that night — numbers that, under normal circumstances, would be bad enough to lose.
But in a game featuring 10 turnovers, 59 rushes and a combined completion rate of 48 percent, Mirer’s 20-yard scramble on third down in the fourth quarter set up a 27-yard Jeff Jaeger field goal to tie the score 10-10. Bears linebacker Bryan Cox then sacked the Rams’ Tony Banks, forcing a fumble that Jim Flanigan recovered for Chicago deep in St. Louis territory. Jaeger booted the winning 20-yard kick.
The Bears finished that season 4-12 instead of 3-13, leaving the Colts as the only team with fewer than four victories. At 3-13, Indy would select first overall in the draft and take Peyton Manning.
The Colts and Manning would later win a Super Bowl — against the Bears, of course. Had Chicago also finished 3-13 during that lost 1997 season, Indy held the tiebreaker and still would have selected first overall. But the Bears would have owned the second pick. Leaf, not Manning, could have been their quarterback. Bad as that sounds, it probably would have spared Chicago from the McNown era, at least.
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The Bears plummeted to fifth in the draft order, where they selected a running back, Curtis Enis, who rushed for 1,497 yards — not as a rookie, but for his career.
The mind reels. If drafting Leaf would have done for the Bears what it did for the Chargers, Chicago instead of San Diego could have emerged with the No. 1 pick in 2001, when Michael Vick was the quarterback prize. Yeah, Vick to Gonzalez sounds a little better than Mirer to Allred, but such is life when you’re not only fresh out of Luckmans, but longing for Erik Kramer as well.
(Graphic: Wes McCabe / The Athletic)
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