Bear with us for a second. Here’s the simple part of the news: When Jacksonville plays the Browns on Sunday afternoon, Glennon will be the Jags’ starting quarterback. That’s what coach Doug Marrone told media Wednesday morning. It’ll be Glennon’s first start since 2017 with the Bears.
Shoutout to the Associated Press’ Mark Long for uncovering the steps it took to get to this point, though. Glennon’s benching for Trubisky in Chicago in 2017 set off a chain of events that led to his starting in 2020’s Week 12 for the Jaguars.
Here’s how it went:
Chicago benches Glennon in favor of Trubisky in 2017. This leads Glennon to move on to the Cardinals in 2018 and Raiders in 2019. Jaguars’ Gardner Minshew takes over for Nick Foles after a broken collarbone in 2019, leading Foles to be expendable because Minshew is the new Jacksonville starter. Chicago wants 2020 competition for Trubisky and trades for Foles from the Jags before signing him to an extension. The Jaguars need a new veteran backup for Minshew and sign Glennon. Minshew gets hurt after Week 7 of 2020, and rookie Jake Luton takes over. But in Week 12, Marrone decides he’d rather start the veteran Glennon than Luton.
There you have it. Maybe if Glennon was never benched for Trubisky, he and Foles and even Trubisky might all be in different cities. It’s certainly unlikely the dominoes would’ve fallen exactly as they did.
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Glennon isn’t the most consequential NFL quarterback of all time by any means. He’s 6-16 in his career as a starter, and he’s taking over as the third different QB to start for the Jags, who are on track to pick second in the 2021 NFL Draft. But to some extent, the 6-7 Glennon has been unlucky to be on bad teams. He’s thrown 36 touchdowns compared to 20 interceptions in his career, not a terrible ratio.
Cleveland will be without Myles Garrett for Sunday’s game, but that didn’t stop the Browns from pressuring Carson Wentz a week ago. Glennon could be in for a long day in which he takes lots of hits.
Still, though, it’ll be Glennon’s first NFL start since 2017, and who knows how many more the 30-year old will get. It’ll certainly be a cool moment for him, and for that, he’s got Trubisky (and Trubisky’s drafters) to thank.
