Chicago Bears: Analyzing Mitchell Trubisky’s rookie season
By David Mamola
The Bad
By taking a closer look at Mitchell Trubisky’s 2017 season via Pro Football Focus Edge, it’s clear that he has room to grow. His 75.7 overall grade was 24th among all quarterbacks (46 qualifiers) and his adjusted completion percentage ranked 29th.
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It’s clear also that he needs to improve his blitz recognition and identify his “hot” receiver quicker. According to PFF Elite, against the blitz, Trubisky had a passer rating of 81.3 (ranked 32nd overall) and completed just 48.5 percent of his passes. When under pressure (which happened on 36.3 percent of all his attempts), Trubisky’s passer rating dropped to 48.7 (34th overall) and his completion percentage fell to 43.8 percent.
The worst game of the 2017 season for Trubisky came in Week 15 in Detroit. Despite it being the first game for him to throw for 300 yards, Trubisky also threw a season-high three interceptions. Detroit’s cornerback Darius Slay picked him off twice, and after the game, said that Trubisky was staring-down his receivers. Trubisky made some critical mistakes in the red zone, and even though he completed 67 percent of his passes in the game, he clearly missed some throws to open receivers.
Struggles in the red zone were a constant for Trubisky in 2017, but that is not uncommon for young quarterbacks. In the red zone, things get condensed greatly as defenders are able to cover more ground quickly. Quarterbacks have to make decisive decisions inside the twenty, and much of this has to do with pre-snap reads. Before the snap, quarterbacks need to read the defense and identify matchups to exploit. Trubisky’s ability to diagnose defenses was not great, but this is something that he should have no trouble improving upon as he gains more experience.