Grossman's NFL future is all up to him

Q. Why is Rex Grossman a better quarterback now than he was in his first three starts?

A. He's not bigger, stronger or faster. But Rex has a desire to get the ball downfield, and he's willing to make any throw that he feels he can make. That's the courage that you have to have as a quarterback.

But you also have to realize that you're taking chances because there's such precise timing between good and bad.

Rex is filled with the confidence that you need to play quarterback in the NFL. But one-and-a-half games is too limited an amount of time to determine if he sees things differently yet.

Q. Is he playing looser now? Does he need to play with that gunslinger attitude to be successful?

A. He can't play out of control because, regardless if you're being evaluated by the Bears or other teams around the league, you're still being judged on your preparedness, your efficiency, your fundamentals, and on the way you absorb and implement a game plan. A quarterback's report card doesn't come back with only one grade -- there are a lot of areas you're being evaluated in.

Q. Is Grossman's future here or elsewhere?

A. I think a lot of it is up to him. In a business sense, he could probably go up and talk to management about constructing a contract that can reward him for his production and keep him in Chicago. Or, if his goal is to get that financial reward that every player looks for, maybe that's somewhere else because there are a lot of teams out there that have really horrible quarterback play.

Q. If you were Grossman, if the money was equal, would you want to come back and play here or start new somewhere else?

A. I would like to come back here because with Lovie Smith, the facility, the program and the city of Chicago, there are still great opportunities for him. It's not going to get any less difficult no matter what city in the NFL you go to.

Maybe you could go to a smaller market, but the magnifying glass isn't going to be any less powerful.

Q. What do the Bears need to do to rebound next year to get to where they were last year and in 2005?

A. Obviously things have to work out in the draft, but I don't think they have to do a lot; they don't need to make wholesale changes. You need to get Dusty Dvoracek back healthy, and you're going to have to get better at some positions. But luckily, through free agency, it can happen. Is it a major overhaul? No.

Q. Does Mark Anderson deserve to be starting ahead of Alex Brown?

A. Starting on the defensive line is not that big of a deal because it's a rotating defensive line utilizing three players.

I never lacked faith in the way Alex Brown plays. I think he's a good defensive lineman, but you're rewarded for stats, and Mark Anderson put a lot of sacks up.

That's just the process they go through when they're trying to determine how a player fits into their team.

Q. Just looking at the numbers from last year, it seemed they got better production from both players with Brown starting and Anderson being used as a pass-rush specialist. Would they have been better off staying with that?

A. I think they needed to prove determine for themselves if they were leaving plays on the sideline.

If Mark Anderson was capable of getting 12 sacks in a limited amount of time, maybe he could have 16 sacks if he played more. Or else, maybe offensive linemen would figure out exactly how to block him and how you attack him, which has happened.

Q. In retrospect, would it have been better to keep Alfonso Boone for less than a third of what they paid to sign Darwin Walker?

A. Given the past history of performance, I thought Darwin Walker was a pretty good sign here. Watching him as a player in Philly, I was really impressed.

Alfonso Boone, you really saw throughout his career what he was willing to give you in preparation and effort and what he's willing to give you in performance, so you pretty much knew what you were getting. For every three plays that he plays hard, he would relax on two.

With Walker, you get a maximum amount of effort every snap he's on the field, but you would like to see him be on the field for every snap.