Rex Grossman Has Stellar Day, Goes a Little (LOT) Too Far

I'm a Bears fan. Thus, I have bias ... but ... all the stigma piled on the Bears offense, specifically Rex Grossman, has become hyperbole at this point. Everyone is talking about the offense like it's the worst in the history of football.

Yes, the offense was 26th overall in the NFL last year, and, yes, Bernard Berrian left. Again, cue the overreaction. Berrian isn't Randy Moss. He's not even Santana Moss. How that has such a ridiculous impact I'll never understand. Not only that, Berrian was as unproven heading into '06 as Mark Bradley is right now. Who is to say Bradley can't do the same? He has arguably as much talent.

Anyway, the offensive line and running back positions are improved (mostly just because Fred Miller and Cedric Benson are gone). The wideouts aren't good, but they haven't been good in Chi-Town in decades. The true bottom line is that everyone hates the Bears offense because Rex Grossman is the complete opposite of Brett Favre in the media. While cut from the same cloth -- gunslingers with cannons-for-arms that try to squeeze balls where they shouldn't -- Grossman is embarrassing compared to Favre when it comes to production. Always will be. Still, he has way too much talent to be treated like he is in the media.

I know Grossman's not good. Neither is the offense. We get that.

The thing is, it's not even close to the worst in the NFL. I'd probably rank them 25th. I mean, I heard a guy on talk radio last week say the Bears had the worst offensive player at every position in the NFL except TE. Really? Brodie Croyle is better than Grossman? Olin Kruetz isn't above average (actually, to be fair ... I'm sure this guy was talking about skill players because you aren't allowed to act like the line matters in the MSM)?

I used the word stigma above in reference to Grossman. Why does it linger?

My personal opinion is that Rex has never been accountable. No "you know what? I sucked today," or "I need to quit turning the ball over." Never. He usually wears a smile and says things like, "I'm doing fine," or "everything's gonna be okay" ... which is why everyone thinks he's worse than Chris Simms or Brian Griese or Kyle Orton. He's really not.

Well, "Good Rex" showed himself today ... but his lack of self-awareness also did.

Grossman completed 15 of 18 passes in practice against the Bears defense, capping it with a hail mary TD to Devin Hester. This was after hitting on six straight during seven-on-seven drills.

In the least surprising and most frustrating moment of camp yet, though, Grossman revealed his unyielding optimism with this beauty:

"Today was good," Grossman said. "I thought this was one of our best offensive days. We were sharp mentally. ... As long as we don't screw ourselves up, we're going to be fine. We've got a lot of talent on this team. If we play smart, we'll move the ball and score a lot of points."

Excuse me? "A lot of points?" Dude, your job is to let the defense rest by handing the ball off, not turning it over, and moving those chains. You start thinking about "a lot of points" and we have one of the games that caused everyone to say you suck.

"Screw ourselves up." Where to even begin? The turnover machine himself talks like it's a collective thing when he throws to the other team!

Sigh. No wonder everyone hates him.

Just another day of being a Bears fan with Grossman at QB. Positive strides are canceled out by unrealistic junk.

And I'm left, once again, with a reminder as to why the stigma lingers.