Chicago Bears: Predicting how soon we should expect to see Justin Fields

Will Andy Dalton hold off Justin Fields as ‘QB1’?

Although Matt Nagy was not the head coach in 2017, we can still look back at this time since Ryan Pace was part of the organization as General Manager. Heading into the 2017 NFL Draft, Pace went out and signed Mike Glennon to a contract that many looked at and said “whoa.” Now looking back on it, people are saying, “are you kidding me, get Pace out of here.”

Pace gave Mike Glennon a three-year, $45 million dollar contract. Reading that you are probably flabbergasted by those numbers. In reality, Glennon saw a one-year, $18.5 million dollar contract. Although this is still way too much, it is at least a little more acceptable.

Glennon, like Andy Dalton, was told he was the main guy and will be given every opportunity to start at quarterback. In fact, Glennon was even invited to the Chicago Bears draft party — just in time for the Bears to trade up one spot for Mitch Trubisky at No. 2 overall.

The thing is, the pick of Trubisky aside, Glennon saw his opportunity. Glennon was given four games in 2017 to prove himself. Unfortunately, the team went 1-3 during that span. He completed 66.4% of his passes (not awful) for 833 yards and four touchdowns — essentially one touchdown per game. During that same span, Glennon threw five interceptions, finished with a 76.9 QB rating and fumbled the ball five times. Four touchdowns and nine turnovers is just awful.

It took the Chicago Bears all of four games to replace Mike Glennon with Mitch Trubisky. The difference here is that as mediocre as Andy Dalton might be, he is a big step up from Mike Glennon. We will leave the four games as a starting point for now.