CHICAGO -- Bears quarterback Mike Glennon's job just got tougher.

Kevin White's latest setback -- feared to be a broken collarbone that will require season-ending surgery -- strips the Chicago Bears of another starting wide receiver. White’s expected absence won’t hurt the offense as much as the loss of Cameron Meredith to torn knee ligaments, for the sheer reason that Meredith is a much more productive player (66 catches for 888 yards in 2016). If White lands on injured reserve for the third time since he entered the league in 2015, he will have only 21 career receptions in five regular-season games.

Still, Glennon needs someone competent to play wide receiver.

Almost half of Glennon’s 40 pass attempts (18) were spread out between running back Tarik Cohen (12 targets) and Zach Miller (six targets) in Sunday's 23-17 loss to the Atlanta Falcons. Asking Cohen, Miller and tight ends Dion Sims and Adam Shaheen to play a larger role in the passing game is a good idea, but eventually, teams are going to force the Bears to throw to their wide receivers by taking away or limiting those alternative options.

The best hope now is for veteran Markus Wheaton to return from his finger surgery and resemble the player who averaged 17 yards per catch for the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2015, bump up Kendall Wright’s targets in the slot, promote undrafted rookie Tanner Gentry off the practice squad or sign a free-agent receiver off the street.

Those aren't exactly surefire ways to improve the position.

The shame of it all is that Glennon was respectable on Sunday. Yes, he endured a couple of rough stretches in Week 1. At times versus the Falcons, Glennon seemed like an overmatched game manager, a quarterback incapable of making the big play to put the offense over the top.

But Glennon showed up in crunch time. Think about it: Had Josh Bellamy and Jordan Howard, who left before talking to the media on Sunday, not dropped potential touchdown passes on the final drive, Glennon might've led the Bears to an improbable win over the defending NFC champions.

“He showed a lot of resiliency at the end,” Cohen said. “People were going to count him out. The crowd was booing a little bit. He just fought that adversity and showed up. He’s a playmaker. He’s a baller. That’s what we expected him to do, and he led his team.”

No one -- except maybe those who work for the Bears -- envisioned that happening.

“I think we’re already confident as a group,” Glennon said. “When you look at the positives and the negatives, there is a positive that we were close to beating a team of that caliber.”

As long as Glennon protects the football (zero turnovers on Sunday) and the offense establishes the run with Cohen and Howard, the Bears will be competitive in 2017.

In order to beat a playoff-caliber team, however, the Bears have to locate at least one threat at wide receiver.

Sadly, that might not happen until next year’s draft.