What now for the Bears?

With Caleb Hanie the starter for perhaps the next few weeks the Bears will need to give him some help just in case.

Cutler will likely be on the sideline coaching him up, but rookie Nathan Enderle doesn’t provide the Bears with a good enough backup in case Hanie goes down.

The Bears are going to be looking to sign a veteran quarterback. There aren’t a lot of solid options out there.

After the Todd Collins disaster, the Bears will look for someone with a better ability then him.

According to a source, Brett Favre’s agent Bus Cook has contacted the Bears. The extent of the conversation is unkown. I wouldn’t expect him to be the guy the Bears look to sign.

Some veteran options for the Bears to sign as Hanie’s backup could be: J.T. O’Sullivan (18 career games, 69.9 QB rating, nine td’s and 13 int’s), Chris Simms (23 career games, 69.1 QB rating, 12 td’s and 18 int’s), or Jake Delhomme (102 career games, 81.2 QB rating, 125 td’s and 101 int’s).

Martz coached O’Sullivan with Detroit and San Fransisco and at the time thought he saw the field like Warner and had the quick release of Bulger.

Don’t expect for the Bears to be able to convince former Rams quarterbacks Marc Bulger or Kurt Warner out of retirement.

The next couple days the Bears will bring in some possible candidates.

Long snapper issues

Long snapper Patrick Mannelly has played 215 games for the Bears,which is the most in franchise history.

Unfortunately his streak of 147 consecutive games played will come to an end in Week 12 after he suffered a season ending ACL injury.

The Bears signed former practice squad snapper Jake Laptad to replace him. Laptad, spent training camp with the team and started in Mannelly’s place in the preseason finale against Cleveland on September 1.

He’s spent the last two weeks on the practice squad and he will likely be able to make a smooth transition for this Bears special teams unit.

Mannelly was a key part of Robbie Gould’s success, Laptad will now have to do a solid job.

If not, maybe FB Tyler Clutts could always snap again.

Rookie defensive end Mario Addison was released to free up a roster spot for a veteran quarterback that will likely be signed Tuesday or Wednesday.

Jake Perper is the owner and head writer for Bearsbacker.com. He is also the Chicago Bears writer for NFLTouchdown.com. Follow him on Twitter, @Bearsbacker and on Facebook for up to the minute news about the Bears.