https://www.yahoo.com/sports/a/37124129 ... franchise/It was always going to get this bad for the Bears at quarterback in 2017, and it was always going to get bad this fast. There were no real delusions about how bad it would get, and when.
The Mike Glennon Mistake was going to reach up and drag the Bears down eventually.
The disaster that happened in Tampa Bay on Sunday is what most expected to happen in Chicago a week earlier against the Falcons. Even with all the things that went wrong to cost the Bears that game, Glennon did nothing to inspire confidence that the Bears’ brain trust had made the right decision throwing $19 million at him and handing him the starting job.
The 29-7 shellacking by the Buccaneers, a game that was a gruesome shutout until the final 1:43, was just a matter of time. And it reminded all that, because of that decision, more than all the other bad ones, everybody is on the clock. Glennon, coach John Fox and general manager Ryan Pace are all living on borrowed time. Or they should be.
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Even ending the Glennon experiment right now, and rushing to Mitchell (Pro Bowl QB) Trubisky in Week 3 of his rookie year, isn't going to change that. (After the game, Fox said that will not happen, anyway, and that Glennon is still his starter.)
Whenever it does happen, though, that will only be a more vivid reminder of how bad the Bears botched the most important decision the franchise had to make.
You’re tempted to say this is not Glennon’s fault, because if some team is willing to hand that kind of money, and the job, over to someone who brought as little to the table as he did, why wouldn't he fight back his laugh and sign?
But at some point, Glennon does have to prove he deserved to hold one of the 32 starting jobs, and he’s failed at that, spectacularly so against his old Bucs team in his old stadium.
On the other hand, how many more chances does he deserve after these two debacles?
Glennon could have been pulled after the Bears’ third offensive possession of the day resulted in their — his — third offensive turnover. (That doesn’t count the muffed punt by Tarik Cohen, just to show how contagious it was.) This one was Glennon’s second interception, telegraphed right to Robert McClain and returned 47 yards for a touchdown to put the Bucs ahead 23-0.
But give him the benefit of the doubt and fight off the knee-jerk reaction, right?
Well, fast-forward to the fourth quarter, when it was 29-0. The Bears had made a rare trip into the red zone, and Glennon's teammates had failed to help him by dropping two passes in one series of downs. On fourth-and-10 at the Bucs' 14-yard line, Glennon threw to tight end Zach Miller … crossing underneath, five yards short of the first down. It was incomplete. It didn’t matter.
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The hopelessness on display in that play was breathtaking. Glennon, the offense, the coaches, the entire team, don’t even get credit for rolling the dice, gunslinging, saving face by shooting their shot. One would swear they were tanking, except they spent and maneuvered as if they were trying to win now, take a leap, speed up the rebuild so that it wouldn't be so painful.
It's painful.
It will cost everybody in the organization; it's just a matter of when. Glennon has the biggest target on his back — deservedly so. But once he's gone, there are plenty left over to wear it. Eventually it will be on (Pro Bowl QB) Trubisky, the second overall pick, whom the Bears traded up to get, after they'd thrown money at Glennon.
When it moves to Fox and then to Pace, they'll deserve it, too.
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