The 2017 Chicago Bears trending topic du jour is of course the major issues at the quarterback position. Everyone has an opinion on this, as it’s been the issue dominating local sports talk shows since the season started. Team legend and Super Bowl XX MVP Richard Dent threw his punditry hat into the ring as well.
First of all Dent is aware of the roster’s short-comings, and knows very well that the quarterback, regardless of who it is, has a limited amount of talent to work with.
“We’re short of talent in some ways, some guys got hurt, and you’ve got somewhat of a mediocre team,” Dent said at the Built Ford Tough Toughest Tailgate at Brookfield Zoo Saturday.
The very next day after the event the Chicago Bears achieved their first win of the season, but it wasn’t due to any heroics from the quarterback position. Mike Glennon was 15-22 passing, but for just 101 yards, a paltry 4.6 yards per pass. The pitchforks have been out for Glennon all season long, as Bears fans are calling for #2 overall NFL Draft pick Mitchell Trubisky to get the nod.
During his question and answer session with The Sports Bank, and one other reporter, from SB Nation, Dent seemed to hint that it could indeed be #TrubiskyTime soon.
“It looks like when the rookie quarterback comes in the whole team picks up,” The most valuable player in the history of Chicago Bears said.
“In the locker room, we know who should be playing and who should not. Here’s a kid who only played 12 or 13 times in four or five years, but he had a hell of a first game, is it luck or whatever I don’t know, but his accuracy was good.”
“But the locker room thinks from what I could tell, they know something that we don’t know at the end of the day,” the member of the 2011 Pro Football Hall of Fame class continued.
“Now the point is- when does he get out there? When will he get a chance to get out there?”
It’s highly unlikely Trubisky this week, as long as Glennon remains healthy. Chicago Bears Head Coach John Fox will almost certainly not start him on a short week, on the road against the franchise’s biggest rival. Dent was surprised that the Monsters of the Midway gave up so much in order to move up just one spot to draft the rookie out of North Carolina.
“I was surprised they moved up in the draft and give away players,” he said.
“You can’t afford to give away players, you don’t have any players..Now the point of it is, the people who drafted him, will they be around to see it?”
It’s possible that Fox might not be around next season, if the team endures another very long season. General Manager Ryan Pace will likely be back in 2018, regardless of the Chicago Bears final record. Dent echoes the sentiment of many Bears backers when he said that Pace may have been fleeced by the San Francisco 49ers in the Trubisky trade.
“I think they might have got tricked,” he said.
“San Francisco went defense, defense and if this is the guy that you wanted, you could have gotten him, and you still could have had two or there picks left, I don’t know what you could have done with them, but you made a big decision for this kid.”
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, which is partnered with News Now and Minute Media. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, currently contributes regularly to WGN CLTV and Chicago Now.