With John Fox making a change at quarterback for Week 5, we avoid having to break down why the Chicago Bears are starting the worst quarterback in football.
At least, according to Doug Farrar’s weekly quarterback rankings.
Indeed, the recently demoted Mike Glennon ranks dead last among the 34 signal callers four weeks into the NFL season. Farrar highlights two significant liabilities that led to Glennon’s demise: a slow reaction time and the inability to quickly process route changes and coverages. When those two things were working together against Glennon, it resulted in some back-breaking interceptions, and eight turnovers in three games truly sealed his fate.
Glennon isn’t going anywhere, though. He’s still under contract through the rest of the season, maintains captain status, and will serve as the team’s backup. Hopefully, he can take to his new role and work on improving upon the mechanical and physical skills he needs to be a productive QB2 in the league.
Because of the change, Minnesota Vikings head coach Mike Zimmer has a new quarterback to prepare for in Week 5. And by the looks of it, Zimmer has come away impressed with what he’s seen of Mitch Trubisky:
Unfortunately, there isn’t much to say about the Bears’ receivers, who haven’t done much damage while working with Mike Glennon during the first four weeks. For what it’s worth, Trubisky had some extended time working with the likes of Josh Bellamy, Deonte Thompson, Adam Shaheen, and Zach Miller – all of whom were on the second or third team during training camp and the preseason. Perhaps Trubisky has more of a feel for those players than Glennon, who worked solely with the first unit.
Because it’s never too early to dream on how the Bears can improve the talent around Trubisky via the 2018 NFL Draft, Kevin Fishbain of The Athletic dives into his mailbag and tackles a question about the top receivers who could be available come draft day next year. Fishbain offers up some names we’re a bit familiar with, including Clemson’s Deon Cain (who has already been mocked to the Bears) and Alabama’s Calvin Ridley (who might be the draft’s top receiver prospect), as well as Texas A&M’s Christian Kirk and Oklahoma State’s James Washington. Bears fans might want the team to shy away from drafting a receiver early based on the Kevin White experience, but the team needs to upgrade on the outside to get the most out of Trubisky.
Speaking of scouting, Adam Hoge of WGN Radio notes the Bears are bringing out the big names to scout Saturday’s Northwestern game against No. 4 Penn State, including GM Ryan Pace.
While we can dream about a brighter future, there’s also a game to be played on Monday. And for the Bears defense, they will be presented with quite the challenge without Danny Trevathan. The suspended inside linebacker will miss just one game, but it leaves a banged up defense with a thinning linebackers corps. ESPN Chicago’s Jeff Dickerson breaks down the situation, noting the three healthy bodies (John Timu, Christian Jones, Jonathan Anderson) could receive a boost from the addition of second-year linebacker Nick Kwiatkoski if he recovers quicker than expected from a pectoral injury. The Bears have yet to release an injury report this week, so we’ll see where Kwiatkoski stands as soon as the team shares that information.
Trevathan has reached out to Davante Adams, the receiver who he knocked out of Thursday’s game with the hit that garnered the suspension. ESPN’s Rob Demovsky reports Trevathan has gone through Packers receiver Randall Cobb, who was Trevathan’s college teammate at Kentucky. No word on what was shared, but hopefully the message comes across clearly and the two players (and teams) can move on from the situation.
With rookie Dalvin Cook out for the rest of the season, the Vikings have added Stevan Ridley to their running backs room. Ridley, 28, is on his third different team in three years after spending the first four years with the New England Patriots. Back in 2012, Ridley ran for 1,263 yards in New England, but has gained just 1,210 in 30 games (12 starts) since. Minnesota’s running game was going to play a major role in whether the team bounced back into playoff contention in 2017, but took a step back with the loss of cook.
The Vikings have a capable backup plan in Latavius Murray, but he hasn’t rounded into shape quite yet. Murray recently told reporters he is ready to take on a heavy work load, even though his ankle still isn’t 100 percent after offseason surgery.
Even though Cook’s season-ending ACL injury has left an opening for a player to take a bulk of the carries, don’t expect that player to be Adrian Peterson. The Vikings parted ways with Peterson in the offseason and watched him sign with the New Orleans Saints. Peterson is off to a rough start with his new team, but Ben Goessling of the Star-Tribune cautions fans who might be dreaming of a reunion not to bet on it. Because after allowing Peterson to walk away for nothing, it wouldn’t make much sense for the team to trade draft picks to reacquire a 32-year-old back averaging 3.0 yards per carry.
NEWSLETTER
