The Chicago Bears lost starting quarterback Jay Cutler to injury this season, and many expected them to falter because of it. That’s where backup quarterback Josh McCown came in and played some of the best football from a backup that the NFL has seen in recent history. According to Adah Jahns of the Chicago Sun Times, McCown is seriously contemplating retirement following the season.
McCown has played in eight games so far this season, passing for 1,829 yards and 13 touchdowns. Perhaps the most interesting stat that he put up this year is only throwing one interception in his time on the field. As a backup quarterback, coming in and playing nearly perfect football for eight games simply doesn’t happen often. Through the games that he has played, he has also recorded a 109.0 passer rating.
This news certainly wasn’t expected, especially after the season that McCown has put together and the contract he likely earned for himself. His reasoning for considering retirement is that he’d like to spend more time with his family. It would be disappointing to see McCown call it a career now that he has reached the peak of his career. There are at least 2-3 more good football seasons left in his career at the age of 34.
It will be very interesting to see what happens over the course of the next couple months. The Bears could allow Jay Cutler to walk in free agency and give McCown another year to start at quarterback. If that does end up being the case, it would be interesting to see what kind of reaction they get from McCown. Would he refuse to come back as the starter? Only time will tell what McCown’s future holds, but he is stuck between his love for the game and his family.
Evan Massey is a Staff Writer for The Inscriber. Follow Evan on Twitter at @Massey_Evan.