Mitch Trubisky faces what is probably the most important eight-game stretch of his entire athletic career starting this Sunday. If he can’t pull himself out of this extended funk he’s been in since the season began, the momentum of a lost season could result in him potentially losing his starting job with the Chicago Bears. This after ending 2018 with so much promise. Matt Nagy has remained steadfast in his belief that the 25-year old can dig himself out, but a lot of people think it’s a lost cause.
Several signs point to GM Ryan Pace being forced to admit a humiliating defeat on the biggest draft pick of his career and try to salvage the 2020 season by pursuing a prominent veteran. There are several names that might be in play like Teddy Bridgewater, Marcus Mariota, Philip Rivers, and Andy Dalton. Some even think Cam Newton could end up being available depending on how Carolina finishes the season.
One guy who isn’t buying that is longtime analyst Rich Eisen.
He spoke about the subject on his podcast. Given what he knows about the situation and what it would mean if Pace admitted to such a catastrophic mistake, he doesn’t think the Bears will be willing to pull the plug that fast.
“So if you’re Ryan Pace and you did that and last year you hired the coach who’s Coach of the Year and you see what that kid looked like last year and what the team did last year and a Double Doink from being one of the final eight teams in the NFL last year.
How do you then go to your owner and say, ‘Everything that I did by saying Trubisky was the guy over Mahomes and Watson. Everything I did about let’s hire the coach to make him look better…All of that stuff? I’ve now got second and third thoughts on it and we’re going to go in a different direction. Let’s go sign Cam Newton for an absurd amount of money.’
That would take some serious amount of brass to go to the ‘brass’ and say that. That’s why I don’t think it’s going to happen.”
Rich Eisen believes Bears will scale things back next year
Eisen has followed this game for a long time. He has several deep connections in the league. So when he says something like this, he doesn’t do it for dramatic effect. In fact, he reached out to a prominent source he trusts who told him that Matt Nagy has been hiding Trubisky’s flaws with a gimmick-laden offense. Something that masked the fact the quarterback was unable to properly read defenses or go through progressions.
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The only option moving forward is to reassess things next offseason and basically scale back the offense. Simplify anything and everything to allow him to play faster without having to think so much. In other words, go from 202 back to 101. The idea is that it would hopefully return the quarterback closer to the level he was towards the end of 2018. It would be a clear admission of failure by Nagy that he couldn’t turn Trubisky into a proper pocket passer.
Unfortunately, it will be required by Pace in order to protect his investment.
