Chicago Bears: Three styles of play for quarterback Mike Glennon
Putting Glennon in the best situations to succeed
Every NFL offense’s goal is to play to their quarterback’s perceived strengths. That’s a no brainer. As a coach, you are not going to want to put your signal caller in any bad situation on the field.
Having said that, “playing to a signal caller’s strengths” can be interpreted in many distinct ways.
If you are the New England Patriots, for instance, that means finding innovative ways to maximize Tom Brady‘s star-studded talents.
On the other hand, if you are a team that is sending out a rookie quarterback into the fire (hence, making his first NFL start), that expression likely implies protecting him from harm’s way at all costs.
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But, if you are the Chicago Bears, who do not have either Tom Brady or a rookie signal caller running the offense at this moment under John Fox, you fall somewhere in the middle of these two scenarios.
The Bears, after all, experienced already first-hand what it’s like to have their offense revolve around playing to their quarterback’s strengths. Look no further than the previous two seasons with Jay Cutler starting games at quarterback.
Under former offensive coordinator, Adam Gase, Cutler had his best season as a pro back in 2015. He posted a career-high passer rating of 92.3. In addition, he only threw 11 interceptions in 15 games played.
The key to Cutler’s success that season came from the Bears’ offense playing towards his strengths, while often eliminating his kryptonite. His ability to move around the pocket, allowed Gase to frequently install high completion percentage, short-to-intermediate passes. Thus, putting Cutler in the best position to succeed. Simply by not tempting him to throw the ball deep into double or triple coverage for frequent interceptions.
Mike Glennon, like Cutler, possesses a strong throwing arm. While he’s not quite as mobile as Cutler, Glennon can still survey the field well under duress, given he’s 6′ 6″.
The Chicago Bears will no doubt create an offensive package that is designed entirely around what Glennon excels at. At the same time, they will also try to protect him as much as possible. That probably means having him hand the ball off to running back Jordan Howard frequently. This helps avoid being put in unmanageable third down situations where his lack of mobility may lead to crucial sacks, or worse; an ill-advised throw.
This style of quarterback play is what the Bears, and Glennon, hope remains sustainable over the course of a full,16 game season. Unfortunately, a game plan can change drastically, especially if a team struggles to win games early on.
This potential scenario leads us to the second style of quarterback play that Glennon might fall into at some point. This time though, unwillingly, on his part.