The Bears decided today that they needed to cut costs. They chose to save money on bandages and ice by waiving erstwhile QB Jim Miller and cut their Geritol budget by telling Big Cat to go scratch.

The Big Cat cut was rumored since last week, but by cutting ties to Miller, the Bears actually surprised us.

Miller signed a very cap-friendly (cheap) contract last year in order to maximize his roster security (not ask for so much dough that they’d cut him), but it backfired. Not only did he not reach most of his incentives last year it’s doubtful (unless he’s got an incentive that pays him to play for another team) he’ll reach the rest of them now.

Williams is a big loss. Of course he is, he weighs like 350 pounds! (Rimshot!) But the impact his departure will have on the team should be negligible. He’s 35 years old going on 50, he fell down a lot last year and he doesn’t practice. Other than that, he’s a Pro Bowler!

Speaking of falling down, nobody has perfected the fall down, roll over and throw an incomplete pass play quite like our man, Jimbo. In fact, the biggest pass play of the year in the win over Detroit was a Jim Miller fall down, roll over throw the ball to Dez White play.

Miller is a likable guy. He’s personable, he takes responsibility for his play and he’s a leader. He also isn’t very good. His arm strength was always questionable and right now he’s got a bad knee a bad elbow and a bad shoulder. How’d you like to be his agent trying to get him a job this offseason?

Yeah, Jim’s doing great. He’ll be off the crutches in about six weeks and then he’ll be good to go. Uh, no, actually then he has to go have his elbow operated on. Once that’s done he’ll be good as new. Uh, yeah, here’s the thing. After his elbow is healed he needs just a little minor rotator cuff reconstruction. Then he’ll be ready to go. Yeah, he’s a fast healer. I think he’d be ready to play by week 13, 14 at the latest. Hello. Hello?

So where do the Bears go at quarterback now? As I see it they have these options.

1) Draft a QB with the fourth pick in the first round, or (gasp!) trade the fourth pick in the first round and the fourth pick in the second round to Cincinnati for the Bengals first pick and a fourth rounder and take Carson Palmer. In this scenario, they sign a solid, but unspectacular (i.e. cheap) veteran to start in 2003 and 2003 only. Somebody like Charlie Batch (no!) or Jake Delhomme (oy!)

2) Sign an overpriced veteran QB like Kordell Stewart (let the Mike Piazza jokes fly) or Jake Plummer (one of our spies thinks he’s a right handed Cade McNown with a better attitude) to start and then wait until round two to take whatever’s left of the college guys. Likely Chris Simms or Dave Ragone.

3) Get a shovel and dig up Sid Luckman.

Is it bad that number three seems like a better option than number two?

As for waiving Big Cat, it makes sense. He was due to make $1.9 million in 2003 and you already have Marc Columbo making good coin to play right tackle. Skeptics say that Columbo is coming off of knee surgery. Realists say every offensive lineman is coming off knee surgery. At least Columbo’s young enough to expect him to actually heal.

The money saved in cutting Big Cat adds to the pot of money needed to make a serious run at bringing back Rosey Colvin or, if Colvin bolts, you can use that money to try and steal Colts linebacker Mike Peterson. Mike might want to come to Chicago and play. His little brother is a guy named Adrian Peterson…the Bears running back.

Regardless. It now looks like the only quarterback from 2002 with a chance to come back in 2003 is…Henry Burris! Such is the state of the Bears.

Sigh.