Chicago Bears: Analyzing Mitchell Trubisky’s rookie season
By David Mamola
The Good
On the positive side, Mitchell Trubisky was able to avoid the pass rush often by using his scrambling abilities to either extend the play or run for positive yardage. In addition, despite being under pressure on over one-third of all pass attempts, Trubisky only turned the ball over 10 times — seven interceptions and three fumbles lost — and only one interception occurred at Soldier Field.
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Furthermore, Trubisky was excellent on third and fourth-down, compiling PFF’s eighth-best grade on those downs. On deep throws (passes traveling 20 yards or more), Trubisky had a passer rating of 108.1 (ranked fourth) and threw three touchdowns and zero interceptions. Trubisky only attempted 30 of these throws in 2017, but under Matt Nagy and Mark Helfrich, the number of these throws figures to increase next season.
Trubisky also showed growth as the season went along. In his first seven starts, he completed just 52.8 percent of his passes and threw for 162 yards per game. In his last five starts of the year, Trubisky completed 67.1 percent of his passes and averaged 211 passing yards per game. Even better, outside of his three-interception game in Detroit, Trubisky did not throw an interception in any other game.
The game appeared to start slowing down for him as the season went along, and he showed great confidence in every situation he was put in. Whether it was the key third-down throw to Kendall Wright against the Baltimore Ravens or the scramble on fourth down in the first meeting against the Detroit Lions, Trubisky seemed to be unfazed during critical moments of the game. He only had one game-winning drive, but Trubisky seems to have the mental makeup to handle these types of plays when the game is on the line.