Simply being a talented quarterback is one thing. A lot of guys can throw a football to a receiver with accuracy or simply launch it far down the field. Many can also run pretty fast. What separates the average from the great and even the good from the great is how they operate as a leader. Mitch Trubisky seems to understand this well.
According to head coach Matt Nagy, when he arrived with the Chicago Bears last year as head coach, one of his first jobs was to assess the quarterback. He already knew what Trubisky was like on the field, having evaluated him extensively both before the 2017 draft and when preparing for his interview.
What he wanted to figure out was where the young QB sat in the Bears locker room. How did the rest of the team view him as a leader? It didn’t take him long to find out
In fact, Nagy was far more concerned about the team buying in to him as their coach than Trubisky as their quarterback.
“I felt it right away,” Nagy said of the team’s confidence in Trubisky. “I really did. I think really our team last year, it wasn’t even about that. I think it was about me. When were they going to buy into me? A lot of those guys last year, they already knew about Mitch. The new guys we brought in didn’t and they developed a chemistry offensively.”
Mitch Trubisky cemented his hold on locker room with play last year
Anybody who has watched clips before games or on the sideline during them would’ve seen it. Trubisky isn’t afraid to get vocal in order to motivate his guys. If he has to scream he screams but more often than not he’s offering encouragement and telling them they’ll get it done.
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Last year he delivered on that promise a lot. He had two game-winning drives in 2018 and delivered several time-consuming marches late in the 4th quarter to put others away. His performance against Philadelphia in the wild card playoff was especially good. He got them the lead late and then had them in position to win before Cody Parkey’s missed field goal.
He led by both words and action. He also embraced that role off the field, constantly hanging out with guys away from the locker room. It should be no surprise the rest of the team firmly has his back. It’s why so many were pissed off at the dirty hits he took against Minnesota and San Francisco.
Nagy knows that when the quarterback has the locker room, everything else becomes easier.
