The Bears QBs include Jay Cutler who may be out for the season with a broken thumb, Caleb Hanie who threw three INTs this weekend in relief of Cutler and Josh McCown who is Josh McCown. In Lovie Smith’s mind, McNabb isn’t even as good as Hanie or McCown.

So don’t look for McNabb in a Bears uniform this season, or any other uniform (for the record the Cowboys have also said they’ll pass on McNabb). Not that McNabb will care much. He still gets his money from the Vikings plus he now has plenty of time for “Clearing the mind and getting the body back where it needs to be.” Whatever the hell that means.

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According to various sources, including ESPN’s Adam Schefter, the former Vikings head man, who was fired one year into the Zygi Wilf regime to make way for Brad Childress, has landed a gig as offensive line coach with the Purple’s hated rivals the Chicago Bears.

Tice’s hiring comes as part of a major coaching staff overhaul for the Bears, who have retained Lovie Smith but gotten rid of almost everyone else, including offensive coordinator Ron Turner.  Tice will be charged with the difficult task of helping rebuild an offensive line that looked less-than-impressive in 2009, especially in run blocking.

Before this, Tice spent several years as assistant head coach and tight ends coach in Jacksonville.  He was a tight ends coach and then an offensive line coach in Minnesota before being elevated to head coach upon the firing of Dennis Green.

In the latter stages of Dennis Green’s run in Minnesota, it was believed that Green had utterly lost the team, and Tice was the de facto head coach.  Tice was aided in apparently usurping Green by his chummy relationship with Randy Moss, a relationship that went south after Tice was officially handed the reins.

A bit of friendly advice for Lovie Smith:  Given Tice’s experience in the fine art of undermining an embattled head coach and finally taking his job, mainly by gaining the loyalty of star players, you might want to limit Tice’s interaction with Jay Cutler.  Just sayin’.

Actually, that is an understatement.  The Jay Cutler the Bears thought they were getting was a Pro Bowl-level quarterback with some possible mental issues; the guy they’ve actually gotten is an interception machine who pouts during the game, makes idiot comments after the game and generally has Bears fans pining for the glory days of Rex Grossman.

To Cutler’s credit, he seems aware of how bad he’s stunk up the place.

“I haven’t played up to my expectations,” the quarterback admitted. “I think that’s the most important part. I can play better. I know that. It’s a process, though. I think everyone in the offense knows what we’re trying to get done. We’re dressing young guys. We’ve got some new guys and we’re still trying to gel a little bit. It’s going to come though.”

Note that, after pointing the finger at himself for not playing well, Cutler whips out a few convenient excuses, like “we’re dressing young guys” and “we’ve got some new guys.”  Cause great leaders always hang the blame on the rookies.

Clearly, the Cutler trade has been a fiasco for the Bears.  Instead of taking the next step by finally getting a “real quarterback”, the team has lost its identity and gone way backward.  Now Lovie Smith has to deal with rumors of Bill Cowher wanting to take his job.  I’m sure that will help him concentrate on getting fixed what needs to be fixed.

All I can say for disgruntled Bears fans is, just hope Detroit doesn’t beat the Packers on Turkey Day, and your team lose to the Vikings on Sunday.  Cause then you’ll only be one game ahead of the Lions.