Mitch Trubisky could be a starter for the Bears sooner rather than later

With NFL training camps starting in a couple of weeks, we are getting closer and closer to preseason football which will begin August 3rd in Canton, Ohio. Across the league, players will compete for starting jobs in their respective positions, which can sometimes lead to significant lineup changes. Yet in the Windy City, there is one position that is spoken for despite the Chicago Bears trading up one spot in the NFL Draft to draft potentially the face of the franchise in the near future.

According to the Bears, former UNC quarterback and 2nd overall pick Mitch Trubisky will be the backup quarterback behind former NC State quarterback Mike Glennon. This is a rather controversial decision, one that is likely based on the fact that the Bears do not want to pay Glennon $18.5 million guaranteed just to ride the bench for the 2017 season. Trubisky wasn’t exactly cheap himself, as the Bears traded two third-round picks and a fourth round pick to the San Francisco 49ers in order to get the Ohio native.

Anybody that has any authority is stating that Mike Glennon will be the starting quarterback, and that it is a done deal. The question is: how long will it take for that to change? Chances are, it won’t take very long at all.

The Chicago Bears have a long, strange history with mediocre to downright bad quarterbacks. The Bears have had 14 different starting quarterbacks since their 1986 Super Bowl win against the New England Patriots, and Mike Glennon will be next on that list. The Chicago Bears are coming off an abysmal season finishing with a 3-13 record, which is five wins behind the Minnesota Vikings who finished 3rd in the NFC North. Jay Cutler was the starter before suffering an injury and being replaced by Brian Hoyer.

During the offseason, the Chicago Bears decided to clean house, albeit maybe more so than they wanted to (or maybe losing their best receiver was a part of the plan, who knows). They finally cut ties with Cutler as well as Gabbert, but also managed to lose wide receiver Alshon Jeffery to the Philadelphia Eagles. The Bears picked up a quarterback who started only one year in the NFL before losing his starting job to Jameis Winston, and also managed to acquire former New York Giants wide receiver Victor Cruz. They also picked up Mark Sanchez, which oddly enough could play a wild card role in the QB situation as well.

The Bears will have quite the issue on their hands if Mitch Trubisky out-performs Mike Glennon during the four preseason games. Is it likely that he will? That remains to be seen, but there is no doubt that Bears fans and media alike will begin throwing fuel into the fire that is NFL quarterback controversy should Trubisky prove his worth. However, if history says anything about the Bears it is that they will blatantly ignore everyone’s cries to start their number two overall pick and stick with Glennon at least for the first half of the season. Trubisky or no Trubisky, the first half of the season will be ugly.

The Bears open their season against reigning the NFC Champion Atlanta Falcons. After suffering one of the worst losses in Super Bowl history, the Falcons didn’t lose many pieces from their team and will be out to prove that last year’s run wasn’t a mistake. The good news is: this game is in Chicago. The bad news? Atlanta’s roster looks better than their Super Bowl roster, and is 90% likely to be the first loss of the season.

From there, it doesn’t get any easier. The Bears play the Bucs, Steelers, Packers, Vikings, Ravens, Panthers, and Saints all before their bye week. Unless during the offseason they managed to figure out how to develop some kind of defensive scheme that actually works against really good offensive teams (or Glennon turns out to be that good, that is possible), the Bears will be in a bad way by the time the bye week hits. Playing against six former Super Bowl quarterbacks in the first part of your schedule is rather unfair to say the least, and that unfairness will likely be Chicago’s undoing and we will probably see them call on Trubisky to start against the Packers in week 10.

The pre-season will be extremely telling as to whether or not Mitch Trubisky will be ready to play on Sundays this year or if he will remain a backup. If he performs better than Glennon, then Chicago owes it to Trubisky as well as their fans to let him start. What do you think? Do you think the Bears will cave under pressure and start Trubisky? Or will they stick to their guns and keep Glennon under center? Let us know in the comments below.