Bears mailbag: Futures for Mike Glennon, Kevin White? Why no screens?

SHARE Bears mailbag: Futures for Mike Glennon, Kevin White? Why no screens?
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Bears quarterback Mitch Trubisky warms up. (AP)

The Sun-Times’ experts can answer your Bears questions all week on Twitter. Here’s a sampling of queries sent to @patrickfinley, who responds with more than 140 characters:

The bar the wide receivers have to clear is limbo-low. Trade acquisition Dontrelle Inman will make his debut against the Packers, and Markus Wheaton (groin) shouldn’t be far behind. They’ve totaled three catches for 13 yards this year, but they’re still the Bears’ most accomplished receivers. And noodle this one: Since the Bears released veteran receiver Deonte Thompson, he has 12 catches for 193 yards in three games with the Bills. The Bears’ entire receiving corps has eight catches for 159 yards in that stretch.

Two-parter! Fangio is in the final year of his three-year deal as the Bears’ defensive boss and is their only coordinator not under contract beyond this year. He said during training camp that he wasn’t looking to go anywhere, but we’ll see. As for Fuller, this version of him is certainly what former Bears general manager Phil Emery thought he was getting when he drafted the cornerback in the first round in 2014. Coaches attribute Fuller’s attitude to health and a snowballing confidence — he has flipped Cam Newton and Mark Ingram in consecutive weeks — but I need to see more than a half-season before making any grand declarations.

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Teams have until May 3 to extend a fifth-year option to any 2015 first-round pick. There is zero chance the Bears give White one. The option costs a bit north of $13.3 million; that’d be about $630,000 for each of White’s 21 career catches.

The Bears are a bad screen team. Mitch Trubisky’s passer rating is well below the NFL average behind the line of scrimmage, per NFL Next Gen Stats, particularly to the center (54.6 passer rating vs. 91.2 league average) and to the right (70.1 vs. 87.3). The Bears are running more sprint-outs and play-action passes to take advantage of Trubisky’s accuracy on the run. The timing of screens takes a more delicate touch. It should improve with time.

Pro Football Focus has him graded as the second-best safety in the NFL; his 3.2 yards per completion are tops among all safeties. Is it because of Jackson? I doubt it, though the rookie’s ball-hawking tendencies pair well with Amos’ tackling.

There’s no way the Bears pay Glennon $15 million next year to be the backup.

Follow me on Twitter @patrickfinley.

Email: pfinley@suntimes.com

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