LAKE FOREST, Ill. -- Common senses calls for the Chicago Bears to draft a quarterback in April, but general manager Ryan Pace admitted that Mike Glennon's signing might affect the round Chicago chooses a developmental passer.
“It could,” Pace said. “Yeah, we're going to take the best player at every pick, so it could. Again we have a lot of confidence in Mike Glennon and again we're excited he's here. It opens things up.”
Glennon’s front-loaded contract is for $16 million guaranteed in 2017 but contains only $2.5 million in guarantees after that. Of course, the hope is for Glennon to flourish, but the Bears have the flexibility to quickly move on if Glennon falters. That option, however, does not exist without re-stocking the quarterback depth chart. Connor Shaw is currently the only other quarterback under contract, and he missed all of last season with a leg injury.
“I think the main thing with the combine: I would say the passing drills and all that, they were kind of what we expected,” Pace said of the quarterback class. “I don’t put too much weight on that. What I was more anxious for at the combine were the interviews -- when we sit with those guys and we get to look at them eye to eye and kind of gauge their football intelligence. There were certain guys who really excel at that. There were certain guys that were just OK with that. That goes into the huge puzzle of the evaluation process.”
The Bears are notoriously poor when drafting quarterbacks. Chicago used only three picks on quarterbacks -- Nate Enderle, Dan LeFevour and David Fales -- in the Jay Cutler era that spanned from 2009-16. New England -- led by future Hall of Famer and five-time Super Bowl champion Tom Brady -- drafted more quarterbacks over that identical period.
