Mike Glennon has enough rea$$urance for Mitch Trubisky pick

Mike Glennon as a Buccaneer. (Orlando Ramirez-USA TODAY Sports)

The only words of comfort and reassurance the Bears need to offer quarterback Mike Glennon are the same ones they offered him when he joined the team in March: How are you going to spend the $16 million in guaranteed money for 2017 we’ve given you?

The idea that they have to explain their drafting of quarterback Mitch Trubisky to a guy who has thrown 11 NFL passes since the end of the 2014 season would be laughable if it wasn’t so — no, actually, it is laughable.

That Glennon might be sad, hurt, wounded and/or destroyed is something we all are going to have to live with. Somehow. I’d like to think that if we put one foot in front of the other, we eventually will get past the pain.

If Glennon had been under the preconception that he was anything but a stopgap until the Bears found their next quarterback of the future, then he and his agent didn’t do their homework. The Bears surely left open the possibility that he might be the long-term answer at quarterback, but they never counted on it. How could they, given his so-so résumé? He’s their starter for 2017, and he should be celebrating. Loads of quarterbacks out there would love a year’s worth of certainty.

The $16 million mentioned above answers any concerns that the Bears misled Glennon. It covers everything. The Bears seriously overpaid for him, with no other team remotely in the ballpark in terms of a contract offer. If they knew they were going to make an all-out effort to draft Trubisky even while recruiting Glennon, is it possible they gave the free agent extra money out of a guilty conscience? That seems like a stretch. That sounds like an NFL team with a heart, which would be a first.

More likely, the Bears were impressed with Glennon but saw him for what he almost surely is — someone who could do a passable job as an NFL quarterback until the franchise took a swing at a young quarterback.

They swung mightily Thursday, surprising almost everyone who pays attention to pro football.

Now there’s talk of the need for the Bears to comfort Glennon. But why? Was he led to believe there wouldn’t be competition at his position? Doubtful. Did the Bears have a duty to tell him they might draft a quarterback? No. But, again, Glennon and his agent had to know it was a real possibility. If the Bears told him they had no plans to take a quarterback, then they lied. Last I checked, lying is what everybody does in the weeks leading up to the draft. I’m not condoning it, just saying that anyone who thinks they’re getting the truth at this time of year is naïve.

If you want to put blame anywhere, put it on the Bears’ decision to have Glennon come to their draft party Thursday at Soldier Field. When the Bears moved up to take Trubisky with the No. 2 pick overall, the fans who bought tickets to the event presumably got to watch Glennon go through existential dread, which is sort of like a concussion without getting hit.

But the Bears were so secretive about the player they wanted that when they swapped places with the San Francisco 49ers on draft night, the 49ers didn’t even know whom general manager Ryan Pace was going to select. Of all the criticism Pace has absorbed since he chose Trubisky, no one has been able to accuse him of being a blabbermouth. His lips were zipped for everyone, not just Glennon.

I hope we’re making too much of Glennon’s feelings. But if we aren’t, if he is hurt, he needs to get past it soon. Sulking doesn’t accomplish much, and it’s bad for your posture.

Pace eventually will have to decide who is going to teach Trubisky how to be an NFL quarterback. It might be Glennon, though he has started only 18 games in his career. It might be offensive coordinator Dowell Loggains, but if the Bears go through anything similar to the 3-13 disaster they experienced last season, it’s impossible to see coach John Fox and his staff surviving.

Trubisky is a project, but the project is expected to be the Bears’ starting quarterback in 2018. The upcoming season is huge for him in terms of his education.

Are the right people in place to mentor him? It’s a critical question that might not have an answer until the 2018 season.

Nervous? Get in line with everybody else.

Follow me on Twitter @MorrisseyCST.

Email: rmorrissey@suntimes.com