Look around the NFL. Listen to the media talk. It’s all about the quarterbacks right now. Specifically the young ones. Ask this question though. How many of them are being showered with praise? Patrick Mahomes, Jared Goff, Dak Prescott, Deshaun Watson, Carson Wentz, and Sam Darnold. How often is Mitch Trubisky mentioned alongside them and with anywhere the same degree of reverence?
It’s worth noting that he has a quarterback rating this season that is superior to four of the names listed above. He has the 4th-best completion percentage and is tied for the 7th-most touchdown passes. If that weren’t enough, he has the third-most rushing yards for a quarterback this season. What does a guy have to do to get some positive attention?
Perhaps a better question to ask is why so many remain stubborn in their pessimistic views of him. It’s rather remarkable how many in the national media and even the Bears fan base are desperately railing against the notion that he might be getting better. So I decided to explore some possible reasons why, starting with the most obvious.
#1: Bears history
This is the most obvious explanation. To understand the pessimistic attitude around Trubisky is to simply look back at Bears history. Prior to Trubisky, the franchise has had a total of 64 different quarterbacks start at least one game for them. Only five managed to win at least 30 games. None who lasted longer than a few seasons has a quarterback rating higher than 85.2. Collectively they’ve reached one Pro Bowl since 1964.
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Other teams try to pass off their problems at the position as the worst ever but they can’t hold a candle to the sustained ineptitude Chicago has suffered under over several decades. Having that knowledge on hand means many experts can go right ahead and assume it will be more of the same with Trubisky. Why? History has painted the clear picture that the Bears organization has no clue how to properly develop a quarterback.
Painful as it is to admit, this reasoning is fair.
#2: Draft declarations
One of the biggest controversies surrounding Trubisky happened the moment the Bears drafted him. GM Ryan Pace dropped a bombshell when he gave up multiple picks to the San Francisco 49ers to move up from the #3 spot to #2 in order to secure the young quarterback. This hatched a ton of takes from draft experts, pro and amateur.
The common thread coming out of that moment was two-fold. There were people who disagreed with the pick because they didn’t like the player. Then there were people who disagreed with the pick because they felt the trade was unnecessary. It was actually rather shocking how heated so many of them got about it and still are even to this day.
The common knock on Trubisky coming out of North Carolina wasn’t so much his skill set. It was his experience. Nobody in the draft community was prepared to believe a quarterback with just 13 career college starts could find success in the NFL and they were prepared to die on that hill.
Then Will Brinson of CBS Sports couldn’t get over how the whole trade situation played out, believing the Bears basically bid against themselves when they could’ve just stayed put at #3 and gotten their guy.
“But the investment here in Trubisky isn’t a single third-round pick, it’s a fourth-round pick, too, and another third-round pick next year.
Pace will be fine with the move if Trubisky becomes a top-10 or top-15 quarterback some time in the next two or three years. But ultimately the process that led to the selection was badly flawed. The Bears shouldn’t be rewarded for their decision-making in that respect, regardless of how this whole thing pans out.”
So wait.
This is stating the trade was wrong even if Trubisky becomes a great quarterback? On what planet does that make any sense. One would think nobody will even remember the trade were that to happen. Here’s the thing to remember. These people making these assumptions have egos. They believe they’re right when they make assumptions like this.
Try to imagine what happens when the player they spent so much time trashing suddenly starts to play well. They desperately continue to attack him for every little mistake because they desperately want to avoid doing the single hardest thing for almost anybody on the planet.
Admit they were wrong.
#3: Jay Cutler aftermath
Then there’s the legacy left behind by the man Trubisky is replacing. Jay Cutler was a contentious and controversial figure in the NFL world for a long time. He was widely known for his distaste for the media and wasn’t exactly the most cordial figure, on or off the field. Anybody who needs a reminder merely has to watch the incredible backlash on him during the NFC championship game when he got knocked out by a knee injury.
That wasn’t just a general criticism. It was clear a lot of players and media sincerely disliked Cutler and that’s something that held throughout his times as the Bears starting quarterback. It almost feels like Trubisky is catching the tail end of that backlash. People grew so used to hating Cutler that they began to ignore when he did or did not play and simply generalized it to the Bears quarterback position in general.
Then there are those people who felt Cutler got a raw deal in Chicago. That he should still be the starter and was the best chance this team had to win. They can’t get over him, and this has left them unopen to the idea of a new face at quarterback.
This is further proof that all of the resistance to Trubisky has nothing to do with the player himself. It’s a mixture of organizational history, personal ego, and the contentious era of his predecessor that have conspired to a point where he’s the only young quarterback playing well that everyone still seems to doubt.
