To nobody’s surprise, the Chicago Bears have announced that they will release quarterback Mike Glennon come the beginning of the new league year. After a disastrous start to the 2017 season, the veteran quarterback was benched in favor of Mitchell Trubisky.
Glennon had signed a three-year, $45 million deal with the Bears before last March, but had a contract structured with team-friendly outs in 2018 and 2019. It was essentially a one-year deal. If the Bears would have picked up his 2018 option, he would have been a $16 million cap hit while making a base salary of $12.5 million plus $3.5 million in bonuses. Last year he made a guaranteed $18.5 million while being a $14 million cap hit.
GM Ryan Pace has drafted well but has had a number of free agent duds. This one really stands out. After parting ways with Jay Cutler, Pace went and got Glennon, almost immediately after, there was some head scratching amongst fans. However, they needed a quarterback.
While some wondered if he was going to be “the guy” moving forward, the drafting of Mitchell Trubisky second overall officially made Glennon the bridge veteran quarterback. Fans wanted Trubisky to start right away, but it was clear that the Bears were starting Glennon on opening day.
Overall in a Bears uniform, he started four games and the team went 1-3. In those games, he threw for 833 yards with five interceptions, four touchdowns, and a 76.9 rating. Most of his yards and completed passes were check-downs (one can also blame some of that on the coaching) and had no mobility in the pocket. He was sacked eight times in those games and lost 78 yards on those sacks. His final game as a Bear came in an ugly loss in Green Bay on Thursday, September 28th.
There was never a huge expectation for Glennon, seeing as he had played in just eight total games from 2015-2016, but this experiment was brutal. The hope was that he could be a Brian Hoyer-type guy who was not great, but serviceable. The Bears are probably disappointed because they probably did not want to rush Trubisky in so fast, but they had to do something.
In the end, this did not really set the Bears back, they gave him his contract with one year guaranteed and parted ways. They have plenty of cap room and are moving forward with Mitch Trubisky. Glennon will probably be a backup somewhere in 2018, but this is not the place for that.
