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Imrem: If only the Chicago Bears had a younger QB ...

Carson Wentz hasn't quite supplanted Jimmy Garoppolo as my quarterback crush.

No, not even after Garoppolo injured his throwing shoulder Sunday afternoon.

And not even after Wentz led the Eagles to a 29-14 victory over the Chicago Bears on "Monday Night Football."

Garoppolo still is from Arlington Heights, Rolling Meadows High and Eastern Illinois University.

Ah, but Wentz was really appealing when he arrived in Soldier Field with the Eagles to play the Bears and did nothing in the game to discourage the growing excitement over his emergence.

It didn't matter whether Wentz outplayed Bears quarterback Jay Cutler, who played poorly enough for long enough to be booed in the third quarter before leaving in the fourth with a bum right thumb.

"We'll have plenty of time to evaluate him," Bears head coach John Fox said of Cutler's injury. "We'll keep you posted."

This is about the future anyway and, with the Bears 0-2 for the young season, the future might as well be now.

The problem is that if Cutler has to miss games, the Bears don't have a young quarterback to step in … not younger than current 30-year-old backup Brian Hoyer.

Cutler is 33, Wentz is 23. Wentz had a better QB rating than Cutler on this night and looks like he could for years to come.

After this one game - only Wentz's second in the NFL - wouldn't the Bears be more inspiring to follow if they had either Wentz or Garoppolo in its QB pipeline?

"He's a good young quarterback," Fox said of Wentz. "He obviously has a lot of good football ahead of him."

Quarterbacks of the future are a precarious proposition, but this entrenched Cutler thing is getting tiresome.

The middle among NFL quarterbacks, where Cutler resides, is no place to start building a champion.

For a long time it has been time for the Bears to do whatever it takes to elevate their quarterback play.

Eight seasons is long enough for the same quarterback to be average at best with a team that is average at best.

Since about 2012 the Bears should have been looking for someone better than Cutler, which Cutler was supposed to be.

The Bears decided not to beat the New England to Garoppolo in the 2014 draft. They also decided not to do what Philadelphia did by moving up to No. 2 overall in the draft to acquire Wentz this spring.

Would Garoppolo or Wentz be an upgrade over Cutler right now? Who knows? But wouldn't it be fun to find out?

The Eagles traded draft choices that represented their future at other positions just to gamble their future on a quarterback.

Then the Eagles decided they couldn't let Wentz sit a couple of years like Garoppolo did in New England. Instead they traded veteran starter Sam Bradford to Minnesota a week before the season and promoted Wentz, who last year was playing for North Dakota State in the Missouri Valley Football Conference.

Wentz might be the next Donovan McNabb in Philly, or better. Garoppolo might be the next Tom Brady in New England, though probably not better.

It sure would be nice if the Bears had either one of them, along with their potential at the most important position on the field.

By the way, if Jimmy Garoppolo doesn't heal quickly, Carson Wentz might become my new quarterback crush.

mimrem@dailyherald.com

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