Jun 6th 2008 1:18PM by Ryan Wilson (author feed)
Filed under: Bears, Raiders, Rams Bruce Gradkowski’s NFL career began well enough; as a rookie, he replace injured Chris Simms and started 11 games. His numbers weren’t all that impressive, but if nothing else, he gained valuable experience and worst case, he’d be a solid backup for the foreseeable future.

Apparently, “foreseeable” equals “one season” because the Bucs released Gradkowski last week after he had fallen to eighth on the depth chart.

He wasn’t out of work long. The reports that the Rams obtained the rights to Gradkowski by claiming him off waivers, but the Raiders and Bears had put in claims as well. (The Rams “won” because they had the worst record last season. Surely, Gradkowski will go a long way in changing that for ‘08.)

The Rams make sense: Gradkowski will likely replace Brock Berlin as the No. 3 receiver. Hashmarks’ Bill Williamson writes that it’s interesting the Raiders are showing interest in a backup with Andrew Walter and Marques Tuiasosopo on the roster.

More intriguing, I think, is that the Bears made a play for Gradkowski. The team is currently without a third-string quarterback behind the two second-stringers, Rex Grossman and Kyle Orton, and Gradkowski is a logical choice for the role. But if Chicago realizes they have some pretty big questions at the position, why not, I don’t know, draft a guy and groom him for the future?