McCown, Bell have plenty to play for
As much as Bears coach Lovie Smith wants the sole focus Sunday to be on winning strictly for winning's sake, there are those who will be playing for jobs next season.
That starts in the backfield with quarterback Josh McCown and running back Kahlil Bell, both of whom were afterthoughts a little over a month ago but will play key roles against the Vikings. In mid-November McCown was coaching a high school football team and Bell was buried on the depth chart behind 2011 Pro Bowler Matt Forte and backup Marion Barber.
But circumstances have given Bell and McCown an opportunity to improve their situations and solidify their futures. They will be on center stage Sunday in the Metrodome against the Vikings, a week after both brightened their futures — despite the 35-21 loss to the Packers.
But they'll be in the lineup Sunday because they give the Bears the best chance to win.
“It is not an audition time,” Smith insisted.
Whether it's audition time or evaluation time, there's nothing left to play for except next season. On March 1, McCown will be an unrestricted free agent. Bell will be a restricted free agent, which means the Bears retain the right to match any offer from another team, provided they make a qualifying offer to Bell, which is a certainty.
How high their qualifying offer is could be determined by Bell's ability to duplicate last week's performance (121 rushing yards on 23 carries and 4 catches for 38 yards), against the Vikings — whose run defense is considerably stronger than the Packers'.
“Some of the guys that played well last week, you want to see them do it again, just to confirm what we saw from that one game,” Smith admitted. “And it's not just guys like that. For veteran players, you want to see them perform a certain way. You can tell a lot when playoffs and all that have gone by the wayside. You can tell a lot about how guys fight just because you're competing. It should be like that. I think I have an idea, though, how the guys will play.”
McCown, who completed 19 of 28 passes for 242 yards last week in his first start in four years, believes if he continues to perform his assignments, the future will take care of itself.
“I'm just looking at winning,” he said. “You want to finish strong and, if you're a competitor, you just want to win. So that's my goal, and generally, especially at this position, if you play well, you put yourself and your team in a position to win, and all the other stuff takes care of itself.”
While McCown just wants to prolong an NFL career that was on hiatus for nearly two years, Bell is looking to elevate his status to full-time starter, not just a fill-in when others are injured.
“I'm not interested in that,” he said of a backup position. “I never woke up in the morning and said, ‘I'm going out here to work to be the No. 2 running back' for any team that I have ever been on. My goal is to be a starter in this league and that is what I'm shooting for. I'm not settling for anything else than that.”
McCown, who is playing for his seventh NFL team, has been a starter in the league, but the last time was back in 2007, when he started nine games for the Raiders. In 2004 and '05, he started 19 games for the Cardinals. Now he's looking for a second chance that he never expected after being out of football last season and most of this season until the Bears signed him on Nov. 23. But for now, McCown's not looking past Sunday's game.
“I want to cherish this moment and this opportunity to play and not really look ahead,” he said. “In the past, at some of my stops, you're always kind of planning for that next thing. You lose sight of what's in front of you, and (you miss) enjoying how fun that moment can be. So that's what I'm focused on this week. But absolutely, you would love to have a job and keep playing unless somehow that desire changes from now until March or April. But I don't see that happening. I'm having as lot of fun.”
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