Glennon's deal with Bears worth $45 million for three years
For now anyway, Mike Glennon is the Bears' quarterback of the future.
Though the Bears had not made it official as of late Thursday night, Glennon and his wife, Jennifer, arrived at O'Hare Airport mid-evening, and the numbers on his contract already were common knowledge.
Glennon's deal reportedly is for $45 million over three years, including $19 million guaranteed, which is expected to be paid out in the first year of the deal.
That would allow the Bears to use Glennon as a bridge to their next quarterback of the future and move on in 2018 or '19 without a substantial salary-cap hit. Despite the addition of Glennon, 27, the Bears still are expected to draft a quarterback in the first two rounds of next month's draft.
The comparatively small amount of guaranteed money should allay fears that the Bears might duplicate the disastrous $72 million ($37 million guaranteed) mistake the Houston Texans made on quarterback Brock Osweiler a year ago.
Glennon has much more experience than Osweiler did, and he is highly thought of in many NFL circles. At nearly 6-feet-7 and 225 pounds, he does not have very good mobility, but he does have ideal stature for a pocket passer, a strong arm, and he gets high marks for his work ethic and intelligence, football and otherwise.
Glennon originally was a third-round pick (73rd overall) of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2013, and he started 13 games as a rookie for a bad (4-12) team. Glennon played impressively, throwing 19 touchdown passes and 9 interceptions with a passer rating of 83.9. On an even worse Bucs team in 2014 (2-14), Glennon started five games early in the season, going 1-4 before he was replaced by Josh McCown.
The Bucs used the first overall pick in 2015 on quarterback Jameis Winston and handed the rookie the starting job. As a result, Glennon did not throw a pass in 2015 and attempted just 11 last year.
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