The Bears signed Mike Glennon to be their starter, and then made the aggressive move to draft Mitchell Trubisky to be their future.
But once Trubisky showed enough to be trusted to be their No. 2 quarterback, it was reasonable to wonder where veteran Mark Sanchez fit in.
Via Rich Campbell of the Chicago Tribune, Bears General Manager Ryan Pace said he thinks Sanchez still has plenty to offer the team, even if he’s inactive on game days.
“It starts with he’s a good player,” Pace said. “But it also goes into all the intangibles he brings, what he brings to our locker room and the quarterback room. Mike can lean on his experience, and Mitch can lean on that too. He’s valuable for us. He’s the kind of guy that just exudes positive energy wherever he is, and he has seen a lot in his career.”
He’s certainly done that. It seems forever ago that he was the fifth overall pick in the 2009 NFL Draft, and led the Jets to four road playoff wins in his first two seasons. He’s seen plenty since then, from a much different perspective, which Trubisky is leaning on.
“He just has so much knowledge,” Trubisky said. “Being in the league for nine years now, he’s seen so many defenses. And he knows how to, coming into a new team, how to study a new playbook. So he’s giving me tips about how to remember things, pick it up faster, what to study in film on a weekly basis and really how to carry yourself in the huddle. And he helps me a lot with situation scenarios throughout the game.”
While plenty of teams are only keeping two quarterbacks on the roster, the Bears clearly think those lessons are worth giving Sanchez a roster spot to serve as a mentor to Trubisky.