Sports blog information from USA TODAY.
It’s heartbreaking that these Broncos legends never won a Super Bowl ring.
As we come to the close of another NFL season following Super Bowl LVII on Sunday, we take a look back at some of the best Denver Broncos who never won a Super Bowl.
Here’s a look back at Tom Brady’s most memorable losses to the Broncos.
At age 45, Tom Brady has (hopefully) announced his retirement for the last time. Brady and the Denver Broncos have clashed many times over the years, most of the games resulting in classic quarterback duels, championship matchups and memorable moments. Brady finished his career 9-9 against Denver, 8-6 in the regular season and 1-3 in the postseason.
Broncos fans love to hate Brady, whose face often makes appearances on the Ball Arena Jumbotron to make fans boo louder.
In honor of Brady’s retirement, we’re taking a look back at his five most memorable losses to Denver.
We will not do this series again, in the chance that Brady pulls a Brett Favre, which is immortalized by this hilarious This is SportsCenter sketch.
Justin Fields made his 12th career start Sunday vs. the Packers. Here’s how he stacks up against other quarterbacks drafted by the Bears.
The Chicago Bears have drafted 32 quarterbacks in the Super Bowl era. Not all of them went on to be starters for the team, as some quarterbacks were drafted to add depth to the quarterback room. Others, like Justin Fields, were drafted to be the face of the franchise.
After 12 starts, it’s hard to tell where Fields is. It’s worth noting that he has shown flashes of greatness in his young career, but he’s also shown a lot of struggles. We’ve seen a lot change for the young quarterback since he hinted at his first preseason game being easy, with this quote: “It was actually kind of slow to me, to be honest.”
With Fields’ 12th start in the books, let’s take a look at where he stacks up with other notable quarterbacks drafted by Chicago, dating back to 1983 with Jim McMahon.
Back on Oct. 5, 2008, the Bears defeated the Lions 34-7 during Detroit’s 0-16 season.
Every Thursday throughout the 2021 regular season, Bears Wire will take a look back at some of the most memorable moments in Chicago Bears history that occurred on or near that given day.
The Chicago Bears and Detroit Lions have had their share of notable games over the years, being division rivals and all. But this game during the 2008 season stands out for a couple of reasons.
First, prior to this year, this marked the last season the Lions faced the Bears without quarterback Matthew Stafford on the roster. Two, quarterback Dan Orlovsky played a significant role in this game, who was also in the news this week after blasting the 2021 Bears and head coach Matt Nagy. With it being Lions week, this felt like the perfect game to look back on.
Taking place in Detroit, the Bears and Lions got off to a slow start. Despite the Bears opening their first drive with a field goal to take a 3-0 lead, both teams stalled out quite a bit in the first quarter. The Lions in particular had trouble moving the ball as the Bears defense had quarterback Jon Kitna under siege all first half. He was unable to get comfortable in the pocket, leading to many inaccurate passes.
On the other side, Bears quarterback Kyle Orton had a career day. He went 24-for-34 for 334 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions. His first score was a quick strike to running back Matt Forte in the second quarter and in their ensuing possession, Orton found wide receiver Devin Hester for another score to make it a 17-0 ballgame at halftime.
Into the third quarter, Orton led the Bears on yet another scoring drive, this time capped by a touchdown run by Forte to make it 24-0. Things only got worse for Detroit on the next series as Kitna was replaced by Orlovsky due to injury and he had an even tougher time against the defense. Orlovsky was picked off by cornerback Charles Tillman for a pick six to make it a 31-0 game. The Bears defense forced an interception and a fumble on the day and had 4 sacks as well.
The Bears bullied the Lions all day, winning 34-7 and keeping Detroit’s skid going at 0-4 en route to their winless 0-16 season.
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Let’s take a look at the trade that went down in 2009, and the career that QB Jay Cutler had as a Chicago Bear.
Eleven years ago today, the Chicago Bears traded for quarterback Jay Cutler. Let’s look back at the trade that went down in 2009, and the career that Cutler had with the Bears.
In early 2009, the Bears traded Kyle Orton, a pair of first-round picks and a third-round pick to the Denver Broncos for their hopeful franchise quarterback in Cutler.
By comparison, during Orton’s three seasons with the Bears, he had a record of 21-12, while Cutler had a record of 17-20 in his first three seasons in Denver.
Orton was a proven winner here in Chicago, and Cutler had a bit of an attitude and seemed like he didn’t get along with the coaches in Denver, so maybe the trade was a little questionable at the time.
In his first season in 2009, Cutler threw for 3,666 yards, 27 touchdowns and 26 interceptions, while starting all 16 games. Ouch. It wasn’t the first year in Chicago many hoped for Cutler. The Bears went 7-9 and ended up missing the playoffs, and the Broncos ended up going 8-8 and also missing the playoffs. So you could call it a draw for both teams in the first year of the trade.
In 2010, it seemed like Cutler was a completely different quarterback, as he led the Bears to an 11-5 record, and they ended up winning the NFC North. In 15 games, Cutler threw for 3,274 yards, 23 touchdowns and 16 interceptions. That was a 10 interception drop-off that he had in 2009, which was a huge improvement.
Then in 2011, Cutler suffered an injury that cut short what was playing out to be a magical season when he broke his thumb against the Chargers. In 10 games, he threw for 13 touchdowns and 7 interceptions with a 7-3 record. Instead of a return trip to the playoffs, Chicago finished with an 8-8 record and were left wondering what could’ve been if Cutler had stayed healthy.
The Bears traded for Broncos receiver Brandon Marshall in 2012. Marshall and Cutler played together in Denver from 2006-2008, and they were reunited in Chicago.
Cutler ended up missing the ninth game in 2012 after getting hit hard during the Houston Texans game. The Bears ended up finishing 10-6 and still found a way to miss the playoffs. The 2012 season ended up being the last year for Lovie Smith as Bears head coach after nine years with the team, which included a Super Bowl appearance in 2006.
General manager Phil Emery quickly found a replacement for Smith, hiring offensive guru Marc Trestman in 2013. Trestman was a part of Steve Young and the 49ers’ success in the ’90s and he has won championships in the Canadian football league.
Cutler once again struggled with injury in 2013, where he only played in 11 games. He threw for 19 touchdowns and 12 interceptions while leading the Bears to a 5-6 record. Entering Week 17, the Bears and Packers matched up for the last game of the regular season, the Packers were 7-7-1 and the Bears had a record of 8-7. The Packers delivered a brutal 33-28 defeat, and the Bears missed the playoffs with an 8-8 record in Trestman’s first year as head coach.
In 2014, Cutler went 5-10 as the starter, he threw for 3,812 yards, 28 touchdowns and 18 interceptions. The Bears missed the playoffs with a 5-11 record. After only two seasons, Trestman would end up getting fired.
In 2015, changes were needed for this Bears’ team. They would find a new general manager in Ryan Pace, a new head coach in John Fox and Marshall and Martellus Bennet would leave the team.
In Cutler’s final two years with the Bears in 2015 and 2016, he started 20 games, throwing for 4,718 yards, 25 touchdowns and 16 interceptions. The Bears ended up missing the playoffs in Cutler’s last two years, with records of 6-10 in 2015 and 3-13 in 2016.
During the 2017 offseason, the Bears held the third overall pick in the NFL Draft, and Bears’ fans know how that turned out as Pace would trade up from the third overall pick to the second overall pick to draft Mitchell Trubisky. Still a questionable move to this day on why Pace traded so many future picks just to move up one spot.
Even before drafting Trubisky, Cutler’s career as a Bear came to an end. He spent eight seasons in Chicago, leading them to a 51-51 record as starter, throwing for 154 touchdowns and 109 interceptions. But during those eight years, the Bears only made the playoffs once.
Seeing Cutler play with guys like Matt Forte, Brandon Marshall, Alshon Jeffery, Devin Hester, and Johhny Knox, to name a few, was exciting.
Cutler was by far one of my favorite Bears. When the Bears traded for Cutler, how did you feel? Did you like the trade? What was your favorite moment?
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Quarterback is the one position that has snakebitten the Bears most in their 100-year history.
This isn’t going to be an easy pill to swallow for Bears fans. Then again, poor quarterback play has become expected with this franchise, especially in recent memory.
Tom Brady made a splash in free agency choosing to sign with the Buccaneers, which marked the end of an era in New England. Brady spent his first 20 seasons with the Patriots, and during that time the Bears have seen an influx of starting quarterbacks.
Chicago has had 23 different starting quarterbacks since the start of the Brady era in New England in 2001.
The Bears trail only the Browns for the most starting quarterbacks during the Brady era in New England.
Starting QBs in Brady's NE Era
ARZ, 20
ATL, 9
BAL, 14
BUF, 18
CAR, 17
CHI, 23
CIN, 9
CLE, 26
DAL, 17
DEN, 19
DET, 13
GB, 6
HOU, 15
IND, 10
JAC, 14
KC, 13
LA/SD, 3
LA/STL, 20
MIA, 19
MIN, 20
NE, TB+3
NO, 6
NYG, 6
NYJ, 16
OAK, 20
PHI, 12
PIT, 10
SEA, 7
SF, 16
TB, 15
TEN, 16
WAS, 20— Spotrac (@spotrac) March 19, 2020
Let’s take a look at those starting quarterbacks:
Not exactly a reassuring list for a position that continues to plague the Bears. And that list might only continue to grow following the addition of Nick Foles, which could signal the end of the Mitchell Trubisky era in Chicago.
Wasn’t it easier when kicker was Chicago’s biggest concern?
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