Kyle Orton helped to revive the Chicago Bears last year. At times. At others, he was Kyle Orton, failing to make many accurate deep passes and unnecessarily turning the ball over. The Bears, in response to Orton’s Ortonness, decided not to make him the quarterback of the future by neglecting to offer any sort of extension.

Perhaps they did this in hopes a better option would present itself this offseason. Well, folks, that just happened. Jeff Garcia, who was scheduled to become a free agent, was kindly informed by the Bucs that they would not be requiring his services next year.

That leaves Garcia to pursue other options. And as a result, the very first thing the Bears should do is sign him to a moderate three-year deal.

Is Garcia great? Hell no. But has he turned around the fortunes of several teams over the past five seasons? Hell yes he has. The Bucs are the perfect example — even when Jon Gruden was mishandling his quarterback issue in the media and on the depth chart, Garcia still busted his ass to win back his job (Brian Griese later just gave it to him by default) and nearly took Tampa to the playoffs.

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Remember Brian Griese? He was that guy that filled in for Rex Grossman when Rex’s arm got tired from all that gunslinging last year. It was a thrilling time in the life of every Bears fan. Brian Griese! Is there anyone more electrifying than Brian Griese?

And now, thanks to the fact that Jeff Garcia and Jon Gruden can’t stand to look at each other, Griese is Tampa Bay’s quarterback by default, and this weekend he gets to face his old team in what will surely be an Important Pregame Storyline. The prodigal bad quarterback returns.

So Griese has stepped back in the Bears’ world, and is eager to survey all he sees. What does he think? How does Brian Griese feel?

“The way they’re playing defense right now doesn’t resemble quite what they played last year or the past two years for that matter,” Griese said Wednesday during a conference call with Chicago media.

Insightful. Please go on.

“I came down here and took the same approach I did in Chicago: Work as hard as I could and control what I could control and get myself in the best position ready to play,” Griese said. “That’s difficult sometimes as a backup because you don’t have the opportunity to show all the hard work you’ve put in if you don’t get on the field but that’s the attitude I took in Chicago and the attitude I took in Tampa.”

Can you feel that? I can. This is the single most exciting Bears Important Pregame Storyline of the year thus far. Even more exciting than “Are the Bears as bad as they seem this? Will Kyle Orton audible this play to a pass? Is Ron Turner alive? Where did I put the spicy nacho Doritos?”