Chicago Bears Sign Quarterback Mike Teel
Published by Bryan Dietzler on July 21, 2010
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Chicago Bears
The Chicago Bears signed quarterback Mike Teel on Tuesday to help bolster depth at the quarterback position and perhaps provide some competition in training camp for the backup position.
Teel was drafted by the Seattle Seahawks in the sixth round of the 2009 NFL Draft and was cut earlier this year by Seattle. Incidentally, he was drafted by current Bears personnel boss Tim Ruskell while Ruskell was in Seattle so there is bound to be a connection there.
How does the signing of Teel affect the Bears? Since Teel doesn’t have a lot of experience, he probably isn’t going to threaten for a spot on the roster unless Caleb Hanie slips or gets hurt in preseason. Due to his draft status, you can bet that Dan LeFevour will remain with the team either on the active roster or (at some risk to losing him) on the practice squad. He has a lot of talent and someone would possibly want it.
So it appears that the signing of Teel may have just been for depth purposes and quite possible nothing more. Since there is a lot of work (throwing the ball) in training camp, it’s always good to have another arm (having four quarterbacks in training camp is usually the standard) and Teel could just be another arm.
Teel spent his college time at Rutgers before being drafted by the Seahawks. He was the third quarterback on their roster last season and didn’t play at all in 2009. Teel was let go by the Seahawks in May of this year but was picked up by the New England Patriots.
Teel was cut three weeks after going to New England and had been out of work until the Bears signed him just this Tuesday evening. Details of the contract were not disclosed at the time of this writing.
There is always an outside chance that Teel could beat out Hanie but with Hanie’s familiarity with the offense in having already had a head start in learning new offensive coordinator Mike Martz’s complicated offense. So, as mentioned, unless something happens to Hanie or LeFevour (in terms of getting hurt) Teel will probably be a training camp memory when it’s all said and done.
The Bears will begin training camp a week from this Friday on July 31st. There are many positional battles taking place in training camp this summer. There will be more about those battles coming soon.
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