The Chicago Bears have a tortured history at quarterback no other team can touch. It’s become a running joke among NFL analysts and media. The darkest moment in franchise history was in 2017 when they drafted Mitch Trubisky out of North Carolina over Patrick Mahomes, the new face of the league. Everybody knows the story by now. Trubisky had a solid second season in 2018, helping the Bears win the division. After that, everything fell apart, fueled by a growing rift between him and head coach Matt Nagy. Amidst that chaos was GM Ryan Pace, the man who’d sold everybody on Trubisky in the first place.
Pace had insisted after the draft that there was full consensus inside Halas Hall regarding the Trubisky pick. In reality, that was far from the truth. Most of the coaching staff didn’t even know the Bears were taking a quarterback before it happened. On top of that, some in the scouting department preferred Mahomes. Still, Pace went ahead with the pick anyway. It seems even those inside his inner circle didn’t take long to cool on Trubisky, even after that playoff run in 2018. Tyler Dunne of Go Long revealed this.
The coaching staff was higher on him than the personnel department.
The GM told everybody that he wanted honest evaluations, even letting the coaches know they wouldn’t be offending him by grading a draft pick poorly. Only harsh honesty would get these Bears over the top. The No. 1 objective: Figuring out if Trubisky’s first year with Nagy was a sign of things to come. In 14 starts, the quarterback completed 66.6 percent of his passes for 3,223 yards with 24 touchdowns and 12 interceptions. He also ran for 421 yards and three scores.
The coaches believed. The coaches, one source says, graded Trubisky “way higher” than the personnel staff. Whereas members on the personnel side viewed Trubisky as a “win-with starter,” the coaches gave Trubisky red grades. Which meant they viewed him as a Pro Bowl-level quarterback who could win a Super Bowl. The only color higher was blue.
Mitch Trubisky was another victim of the Bears’ dysfunction.
While nobody can say he would’ve been a star, he showed that in his second year, he could keep the team competitive as long the roster remained strong. However, people turned on him anyway. No doubt some of this was fueled by Mahomes’ rapid ascent, throwing 50 touchdowns that same season. Then things were made worse when former coach Brad Childress warned Nagy that the quarterback was worthless. This caused the head coach to turn on him as well. Once it became clear many in the building didn’t believe in him, Trubisky’s confidence was shattered.
The best part is Pace, the man who supposedly believed in him the most, did nothing to stop the rot. He acquiesced to Nagy’s wishes rather than trying to rock the boat. The falling out with Fox probably had a lot to do with that. Pace always talked about conviction. Nobody had more conviction in Mitch Trubisky than he did. If anybody failed the former 3rd overall pick, it was the GM. It seems rather fitting that his own personnel staff second-guessed his decision almost from the start.
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@barry_mccockiner I’ll never dispute the Systemic Bias in our world that includes Race bias, but the fault of the biases continuing, is the fault of executives who shouldn’t be executives – because they don’t know how to look at ANY problem. Lamar Jackson won an MVP under Greg Roman (as his offensive coordinator) because Roman had him run. Not because Roman had any idea of how to operate a dual-threat offense. Roman succeed in getting Jackson injured every year that Roman was OC. Does that mean Jackson is injury-prone? Or that his OC is lacking imagination and intellect? (Or that… Read more »
Look, I don’t really think it’s up for debate whether or not race was a factor in the Trubisky pick. I can’t name a single NFL team whose ownership doesn’t have long-standing bias against Black quarterbacks, if only because of the fact that racism is some systemic shit that has affected, and continues to affect, every organization. Also, just a few years ago, the McCaskey’s hired Bill Polian, an out-of-touch dinosaur who thought Lamar Jackson is a wide receiver, to find their GM. We don’t need to think too hard about why Polian thought that about Jackson. Did Trubisky’s race… Read more »
Most people understand that when they are married, they have some choices. Drafted players simply look good and are picked by teams that want them to do better, or simply “look good.” WAS Trubisky good? Was Justin Fields? Were they better than Patrick Mahomes? No one else in those draft classes had Andy Reid. Mahomes did. Reid sat Mahomes behind Alex Smith. When Mahomes got on the field, Reid talked him through the mistakes, the successes, the touchdowns, sacks and interceptions. Trubisky had Matt Nagy, a Reid wannabee. So did Fields. Worse, Fields then had a Matt LaFleur wannabee (or… Read more »
@David I get that all full on %100. But before Poles and Warren this was a very old school mentality ran organization. Again I stated it was a theory I had back 7-8 years ago. Obviously since then a lot has changed. I also stated I was probably wrong in my theory. My theory has no weight behind it because I’m not in the organization or an insider at all. Also I just shared this with Dr. Sallies thoughts in a comment section. Also David what people do to keep up an image doesn’t reflect on who they truly are.… Read more »
@BearCub30 the Bears front office and coaching staff is one of (if not the most) diverse in the NFL and that’s because of George. They have women and men of all colors in both the front office and the coaching staff. George is far from racist and is also a strong supporter of social injustice etc. He’s also part of several organizations that help young black coaches and executives get NFL jobs etc.