On a day that saw Mitchell Trubisky take first-team reps with the Bears offense, Mike Glennon finds himself saddled with a familiar sensation.
"Déjà vu," said the veteran quarterback, who previously lost his starting job in Tampa when the Bucs made Jameis Winston the first-overall pick in the draft back in 2015.
It's a fair response from Glennon, who signed a three-year, $45 million contract with $18.5 million guaranteed in March, only to watch the Bears turn around and trade up for Trubisky in the draft.
Bears brass harped all offseason about Trubisky being tucked away during a red-shirt year -- and then the games began, blowing up those safe springtime dreams.
While Glennon has struggled mightily, Trubisky has operated as one of the league's surprise stories, completing 18 of 25 passes for 166 yards and a touchdown in Chicago's preseason opener against the Broncos. He returned to earth against Arizona on Saturday, but still showed good vision and movement for a first-year signal-caller.
"Right now, Mike Glennon is the starter," Fox insisted, per the Chicago Tribune. "He's going to start preseason [Game] 3, which is a pretty good indicator where you start the [regular] season. I'll leave it at that."
Asked whether there was a quarterback battle underway, Fox shrugged off the questions, saying: "I would answer that, but you guys [media] would run with it somehow, so I'll just not answer it."
As for Trubisky, the rookie -- aware of his rising Q rating in The Windy City -- spoke openly about his climb up the depth chart.
"I think I've progressed faster than they expected I would," Trubisky said, "but I've still got a long ways to go, and I know that. But I think I've shown that I've earned these reps, and I just need to continue to get better each day."
Asked why he believes he's surpassed expectations, Trubisky simply said: "I just kind of get that feel."
So do Bears fans, who haven't viewed competent quarterback play in eons and hold no loyalty to Glennon, who sounds very much like a signal-caller scrambling to make sense of his ill fate, telling reporters Wednesday: "I have to control what I can control."
Whether it's October, November or perhaps even Week 1, we're going to see Trubisky start games for the Bears this season. He's not playing behind Brett Favre, but instead one of the preseason's shakiest arms to date. We all know how these things play out.
