Mitch Trubisky must not be feeling good right now. First and foremost because he just suffered a nasty-looking injury last Sunday. One where he saw a Minnesota Vikings defender land awkwardly on top of him, pinning his left arm behind his body and resulting in a dislocated shoulder. If that weren’t bad enough, Chase Daniel stepped in and appeared to execute the Chicago Bears offense with greater fluidity than seen at any other point this season. This has led some to openly wonder about Trubisky.
While he is still more talented than Daniel and therefore a greater big-play threat, the undeniable reality is he hasn’t progressed as many had hoped. Inconsistency remains throughout his game. He doesn’t process things quickly and it appears he can still be confused by complex coverages and formations that defenses deploy against him. While he’s not the worst quarterback in the league lately, he does look like the weak link on a team with Super Bowl aspirations.
Former NFL quarterback Chris Simms spoke on his program “Chris Simms Unbuttoned” about the entire situation.
He claims that Trubisky, for all his physical gifts, may not quite have the mental acuity to handle such a diverse and complex offense like the one head coach Matt Nagy wants to run.
“This is one thing I’ve been told behind the scenes from a number of people. Matt Nagy kind of says this in his cryptic coach language…and if you really listen to him, he can’t put in his full array of offense or, ‘I got to pull back and make things simpler on offense.’ I think it is true. I’ve heard from people around the NFL that is an issue with Trubisky. You just can’t dump huge amounts of inventory on him. He’s not at that stage yet.
Hey it is Year 3, it’s his second offensive coordinator but I don’t know. Maybe he’s not smart enough to take in all of the offense.”
Mitch Trubisky doesn’t have forever to prove people wrong
That may come across a bit harsh and perhaps it is. Yet people can only go by what they’ve seen. Trubisky’s ability to process things at NFL speeds remains uneven at best. Whenever he’s run into a disciplined, well-coached opponent he hasn’t executed well. Teams have begun to figure out that if they keep him in the pocket and limit his chances to run, then his effectiveness starts to drop. His 81.0 passer rating through just over three games, down from 95.4 last year, would seem to reinforce this.
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Presuming he doesn’t play in London this weekend, Trubisky will have 10 games remaining this season out of the bye week. That is the time he’ll have left to show people that he can be more than what they think he is. He may have some help as a number of the defenses he’ll face have looked weak against the pass in recent weeks. Even so, several of them are well-coached. Trubisky has to understand that the invincible aura around his job security is rapidly fading away.
The Bears know they have a roster capable of beating any team in the league and quarterback is the last piece to the puzzle. If he can’t prove he’s their guy in the next two and a half months, then changes could be coming.
