The Bears went after a quarterback in free agency and took Mike Glennon, the former backup quarterback for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. They handed him a 3-year, $43.5 million contact and many people rose up and “roared” about it. But that’s the going rate for a starting quarterback and the Bears are going all in with Glennon. He is their starting quarterback.
Statistically speaking, Glennon has not done much since coming into the league. He has been in the NFL since 2013 and has played in 21 total games. Some of his more interesting stats include throwing for a total of 30 touchdowns and a quarterback rating of 84.6 percent. Not too shabby in his limited field time. But 21 games in four seasons? Last year he only threw 11 passes and hadn’t thrown a single pass in a regular season game since 2014.
The numbers are kind of scary but the Bears saw something in him that made them give him all that money and anoint him their quarterback of the future. Or at least the near future.
They obviously felt he had potential or else they wouldn’t have brought him to Chicago. There are several theories on why the Bears took Glennon. The most widespread and popular theory is that they are using him as a “bridge” quarterback. He will fill in for a future franchise signal caller who will come from the April draft. They can let the rookie learn behind Glennon and then eventually take over. Another theory is similar but has the Bears selecting a quarterback in next year’s draft due to the thin crop of passers available this year.
Meanwhile Glennon will hold down the fort.
While the numbers and the history say that Glennon may not be anything more than a game manager that can’t win games, he has potential. Can he help get the Bears back to respectability and win more than three games in 2017?
One of the biggest questions for Glennon and the Bears is who he will throw the ball too. There is some talent at wide receiver but there isn’t at true number one. Chicago had better hope that one of the free agents they grabbed or someone who is already on the team can step up. If not and they don’t do anything through the draft, it’s going to be a long season in 2017.