NEWSLETTER
Mike Glennon is the Chicago Bears’ starting quarterback.
Or, at least that was the word when the team signed him in March. It was still the plan even after the team selected Mitch Trubisky in the NFL Draft. And by all accounts, the team is sticking with Glennon as the guy for 2017. For what it’s worth, the Bears’ first “unofficial” depth chart even listed Glennon at the top line on the quarterbacks depth chart.
To his credit, Glennon has said all the right things and made all the right moves as QB1 to keep the status quo. And yet, one pundit isn’t ready to rule out the idea of Trubisky beating out Glennon for the starting job. Over at Pro Football Talk, Michael David Smith writes it wouldn’t be a total surprise if Trubisky supplants Glennon to start the season as the team’s top quarterback. Well, then.
Smith highlights a conversation with John “Moon” Mullin of CSN Chicago on Monday’s PFT Live program regarding the Bears’ quarterback situation. Mullin, who has worked the Bears beat for various publications for a long time, believes there is a non-zero percent chance that Trubisky outright beats Glennon for the starting job:
“It would not stun me to have this kid really flash in preseason and win the job outright,” Mullin said of Trubisky. “I don’t think it’s going to happen but it wouldn’t stun me. You see them alongside each other, you see them trading off the reps and so forth. Trubisky’s got the ‘it’ factor. I’ve seen a lot of quarterbacks and this kid’s got something to him. You don’t see that with Glennon. This kid, when he’s on the field, kind of lights it up a little bit.”
To be fair, it wouldn’t be the first time a football team put a plan in place only to change course because the situation dictated things go in a different direction. However, it’s not as if the Bears often find themselves in a situation like this one. In fact, the Bears have never been in a situation with three quarterbacks at such distinct points in their respective careers. Chicago has a well-paid starter on a short leash, a high-profile backup settling into a reserve role, and a high-upside rookie rounding out the group and working with the third string. How the team handles the situation will go along way toward figuring out the team’s long-term outlook.
The Bears have been adamant about Glennon starting and have not veered from that stance. But if they did, it wouldn’t be the first time it happened.
Carson Wentz was behind Sam Bradford and Chase Daniel in July 2016, but worked his way into being the Philadelphia Eagles’ starter in Week 1. In May 2014, the Jacksonville Jaguars’ GM was adamant that Chad Henne was going to be the team’s starter, and Blake Bortles was likely going to use the season as a redshirt. That was the belief late into the summer before Bortles crashed the party and became The Man. Remember when the Seattle Seahawks were pinning their hopes on Matt Flynn following in the footsteps of Matt Hasselbeck in going from a former Packers backup to the team’s franchise quarterback? And then Russell Wilson happened, and the rest is history.
No one expects Trubisky to become the NFL’s next rookie surprise. In fact, it would be unfair to expect that from a player who so clearly needs to develop starter-caliber tendencies. But the door could be open if Trubisky makes the most of his development time this summer.
