Ryan Tannehill’s injury at Dolphins practice sent a Jolt Cola through the veins of the NFL yesterday. This is what always happens when a team loses their starting quarterback during the summer months. The other thirty-one all stand at attention, processing such an injury in a very similar manner.
Stage One: How injured is Tannehill? Before overreacting teams have to know if the QB is done for the year, several months, four weeks…etc? With this injury it sounds like Tannehill could be looking at a two/three month rehab or season-ending surgery.
Stage Two: Who is out there? The three names that sprinted into media mouths within minutes of the injury were Cutler, Romo and Kaepernick. Kaepernick does not fit what Gase does. Romo just signed to be the lead analyst on CBS. That job isn’t worth giving up to quarterback an 8-8 Dolphins team to second or third place in the AFC East. And then…there’s…Cut-ler! Darling Cut-ler! (Catch that reference, win a prize.)
Stage Three: What do we have that can provide a solution and help build our future? Call it Bradfording. The Dolphins need a quarterback. And if you have one on your roster they want, it could be worth the Joe’s Stone Crab fortune.
The Bears have one.
Mike Glennon is an unproven, developmental prospect at quarterback. That’s what he is. He is not a steady, veteran presence. He’s not even Brian Hoyer or Josh McCown, who despite their limitations are reliable commodities. He is a project. He’s thrown a total of 11 passes over the last two seasons. The last time he won an NFL game – September 28th 2014 – the number one movie in America was Denzel Washington in The Equalizer. And seriously, I don’t even remember what that was.
How many times in recent years has a top pick at quarterback been benched for their rookie season in favor of a player like this? Once. The Rams. 2016. And how’d that work out? Rodgers sat behind Favre. Brady behind Bledsoe. Eli behind Warner. Rivers behind Brees. Trubisky is really going to sit behind Glennon? Mike Glennon? Why? So Trubisky can learn from the guy who lit up the NFL for 75 yards total a season ago.
Nobody knows if Adam Gase has any interest in Mike Glennon. But they have the cap space to pay him so why not make the call and the offer? Wouldn’t Glennon appreciate the opportunity to go win the starting QB gig for a franchise where he has a plausible chance of being there long-term? The dog stopped hunting for the Bears the second Trubisky’s name was called in whatever city they held the draft in this year.
Outside of Trubisky being a complete disaster this summer, I can’t make a single argument for not playing him in favor of Glennon. Not one. The 2017 Bears are not winning a championship. Why not improve the chances for the 2018 edition by letting the rookie quarterback work out the kinks on the field against the best defenders in the world?
And if the Dolphins can make that decision easier, while providing a future draft, how could the Bears possibly ignore it?
