N/S Cutler trade to Bears (mega merge)
They could have very well drafted a better QB with those picks.
I doubt it.
Here's a list of every Quarterback that the Bears have drafted in the first round of the "modern era."
Keep in mind that Bears' Quarterback Sid Luckman started "the modern era."
In reverse order...
2003 Rex Grossman Is in his ninth season with the team and has started 31 games and has a 70.2 QB rating. Lost a Superbowl in 2007.
1999 Cade McNown Lasted two years with the Bears and is known in Chicago as being a gutless cry baby. In one game he refused to play the second half because he wasn't playing well. Is best known for having, and using, a handicapped placard in his car.
1987 Jim Harbaugh Was sentenced to seven years with the Bears and started for five of them. Was best known in Chicago for being Ditka's whipping boy. Had his best years in Indianapolis.
1982 Jim McMahon Played a total of 66 games in seven years for the Bears. He was offensive rookie of the year in '82 and led the team to a Superbowl in '85. Known in Chicago as a good team mate and a bad employee. Those of us who were Bears fans at the time loved him and still have a soft spot for him. Nobody else likes him.
1951 Bob Williams Played three years with a QB rating of 55.8 lifetime.
1948 Bobby Layne I think that he played one season with the bears and sat behind Luckman and Lujack. Best quarterback that the Lions ever had. How that helps the Bears I don't know.
1946 Johnny lujack Started after Luckman and went to two pro-bowls. Played five years and started two or three.
1942 Frankie Albert Didn't play for the Bears. Credited with inventing the bootleg play (while with the 49ers).
1939 Sid Luckman Played until 1950 and won four championships credited with being the first modern era quarterback.
You have to go back to 1946 for the last time that the Bears drafted a pro bowl caliber quarterback who played for them and he sat for two or three years before seeing the field.
You have to go back 60 years to find a dominant quarterback who was drafted in the first round by the Bears.
The Halas/McCaskey family does not want to pay for a quarterback and never has. In this case they find it to be acceptable because they won't have to pay for two first round picks due to the trade.