If only Mitch Trubisky had learned the truth of things sooner. It’s amazing how fates twist and turn sometimes. Everybody knows the story by this point. The Chicago Bears aimed to take a quarterback in the 2017 draft. They had three options on the table: Mitch Trubisky, Patrick Mahomes, and Deshaun Watson. GM Ryan Pace wanted to get opinions from everybody in the organization so he could have as accurate a feel for who he should take as possible. This included the coaching staff all the way down to assistants. Especially Dave Ragone, their quarterbacks coach.
In the end, Trubisky was the pick. Pace was thrilled, as were many within the organization. The GM assured the media there had been a consensus on the choice. As it turns out, he may have massaged the truth a little bit. While several scouts and the front office preferred Trubisky and Mahomes, the coaching staff was different. Head coach John Fox had Deshaun Watson as the top choice. As it turns out, according to Rich Campbell and Dan Wiederer of the Chicago Tribune?
So did Ragone.
In fact, coach John Fox rated the Clemson star as his top quarterback in the 2017 class. So did quarterbacks coach Dave Ragone.
But ultimately, Ryan Pace and Josh Lucas had fallen harder for Mitch Trubisky, believing the North Carolina quarterback had greater pocket presence and accuracy…
…During Watson’s pro-day throwing session at Clemson, Fox spent much of his time beside Tigers coach Dabo Swinney, who had famously said a few months earlier that passing on Watson in the draft would be like passing on Michael Jordan. In his conversation with Fox, Swinney doubled down.
“I don’t know how to articulate the type of greatness that’s inside of (Watson),” Swinney said. “And for me, that’s what Michael Jordan represents. I’m sure when Michael Jordan was coming out of North Carolina, he probably had some flaws. But it’s about who he was. It’s that will, that drive. You can’t coach that.”
Dave Ragone owes his job to a QB he didn’t want
Now it should be noted that Ragone was and remains one of Trubisky’s closest allies and strongest supporters. The two share a strong bond. However, the irony of this cannot be lost on people. Keep in mind that Ragone was hired in 2016 to become the quarterbacks coach under Dowell Loggains. After 2017, Fox and most of his offensive staff were dismissed from the team. Ragone though was kept on when Matt Nagy assumed control.
Why? Mostly because Trubisky lobbied for the team to keep him.
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It’s hard not to laugh at that. The quarterback saved the job of the guy who would’ve picked a different quarterback had he been in charge of the team. This reveals two things. That Trubisky is remarkably loyal in spite of a person’s past, and that Ragone might need to be taken more seriously if the Bears end up going after a new quarterback in 2020. If nothing else, it shows that their relationship isn’t exactly natural when one learns something like this.
