"Before Brett Favre joined the Jets set late Wednesday night, the Bears always could justify not pursuing Favre because they had the Packers' unwillingness to trade within the NFC North division as a crutch.

There would be no such impediment to exploring the possibility of Chad Pennington, the quarterback likely to be out of a job with Favre's expected arrival in New York.

Pennington, 32, is older and more expensive than fellow quarterback Kellen Clemens. He is scheduled to make $6 million in 2008, and it's hard to imagine how the Jets could fit his salary and Favre's $12 million salary under the cap.

If Pennington is released as expected, he will be free to sign with any team and the Bears need to at least give him something to consider. He's a veteran known more for his accuracy than his arm strength, but the combination of his intangibles and experience would make it necessary for the Bears to consider him as a third quarterback. As long as the position is unsettled and the starting job is unclaimed, it makes sense to check into the availability of a former first-round pick from the 2000 NFL draft.

Sure, Pennington has been injury-prone and might simply be a more experienced version of Kyle Orton. But the Bears, at this stage of training camp, wouldn't be asking Pennington to come in and compete for the No. 1 job. The chance to slowly learn the system and eventually get a shot if either Orton or Rex Grossman stumble might not appeal to Pennington as much as, say, a team such as the Vikings might."