The Bears spent the eighth overall pick in the 2001 NFL draft on wide receiver David Terrell, who was cut after four disappointing seasons in which he gained a total of 1,602 receiving yards. As a result, he’s largely viewed as a bust.
But Terrell doesn’t see it that way.
When the Chicago publication RedEye put Terrell on its list of the Bears’ worst draft busts, Terrell contacted the author of the list to complain, saying that the real problem he faced in Chicago was a lack of good quarterbacks to get him the ball.
“I led the league for like the first four games with Rex Grossman at quarterback,” Terrell said of his final season in Chicago. “Until Rex Grossman breaks his foot against Minnesota. Did you forget that? I think you musta’ forgot about that. Man, I led the league in like every category basically until Rex broke his foot. When Rex broke his foot, after that, the season was over. I caught, I mean, I had nine different quarterbacks after Rex Grossman. I caught a ball from nine different quarterbacks in one year. Did you forget that?”
For the record, while Terrell is right that the Bears had a string of bad quarterbacks in 2004, he’s wrong about some of the details. The Bears had four quarterbacks -- Grossman, Chad Hutchinson, Craig Krenzel and Jonathan Quinn -- in 2004, not nine. And while it’s true that Terrell played well with Grossman at the start of the season, catching 16 passes for 267 yards in the first four games, he was not leading the league in any statistical category (let alone “every category”) at the time that Grossman went down.
But Terrell would have loved to have played with a passer like the Bears’ current quarterback, Jay Cutler. Asked what he would have been willing to give for that, Terrell answered, “I would have cut off both my balls. I’d give those up, no problem. You could have neutered me. I woulda been neutered with a smile.”
If that’s true, then no one can ever say Terrell wasn’t willing to sacrifice to win.
