Chicago Bears: Are the WRs That Bad or Is Mike Glennon?

It’s getting hard to tell at this point. The Chicago Bears passing attack didn’t even take a back seat on Sunday against the Pittsburgh Steelers.

They climbed out of the car and clung to the rear bumper. Jordan Howard, Tarik Cohen and the Bears defense did the heavy lifting all game long with what was an old fashioned smashmouth football kind of victory. They ran it constantly, played sound defense and wore the Steelers out late in the game for a hard-fought overtime victory. The biggest contribution made by the passing game was a wide open short goal line TD pass brought about by play action.

The sum total of contributions from the Bears receiving corps? One catch for nine yards. In four quarters and an overtime the wide receivers of an NFL team can one pass. In 2017. That goes beyond bad straight to remarkable. It’s getting difficult to tell at this point where the problem lay. Is the talent of this group really that bad or is Mike Glennon that incapable of getting them the football?

Mike Glennon accuracy and vision issues make WR situation much worse

As always it’s a mix of both, though Glennon deserves a fair majority of the criticism. Again and again the veteran quarterback demonstrates why he was relegated to backup duties in Tampa Bay. His vision of the field consistently comes across as way too narrow. He locks on to his first read and will try to force the ball rather than move through his progressions. That isn’t helped by the additional issues of a slow throwing motion and inability to place the ball with consistent accuracy.

The play shown above is a perfect example. Not only did his slow processing of the play result in a poor throw that should’ve been intercepted. Had he used his eyes he would’ve seen Markus Wheaton pop open which one can see at the end of the video. This isn’t the only example of Glennon forcing a ball into tight windows while not seeing a guy who was wide open. It’s been ongoing since the preseason.

Perhaps the time is coming where the coaches must ask the question. Is it possible Mitch Trubisky can get more out of this receiving group?