As expected, Chase Daniel, the Bears’ backup quarterback, is on the move.
And he’s staying within the division.
Daniel will sign a three-year, $13.05 million deal to back up Matthew Stafford on the Lions, according to ESPN. In two years with the Bears, he went 1-2 in three starts, winning on Thanksgiving against Detroit in 2018. He lost at the Giants in overtime in 2018 as well as the Bears’ game in London last year.
Daniel’s departure is no surprise. The Bears have a long-stated desire to bring in a quarterback to either push Mitch Trubisky or take his starting job outright. That was never Daniel, who only played when Trubisky was hurt. He was never inserted into a game because of Trubisky’s struggles — and there were plenty of them.
Had Trubisky played better, Daniel’s career with the Bears might never have ended. The Bears brought in Daniel, who’d run Matt Nagy’s offense before, to help teach it to Trubisky. The Bears sounded satisfied; at last year’s combine, general manager Ryan Pace said he wanted Daniel to be a Bear for a long time.
But when Trubisky struggled, the Bears could no longer employ a backup whose best attributes were to be a support system for a teetering starter.
