Chicago Bears: Discord continues over Mitch Trubisky
While Chicago Bears quarterback Mitch Trubisky continues to convince many fans he’s the one to lead the team, many others are slow to agree.
In something that was unexpected, we find ourselves at the halfway point of the season and the Chicago Bears are 5-3 and in first place in the NFC North. Moreover, they have a two-game winning streak without playing their best wide receiver, Allen Robinson, and their best defensive player, Khalil Mack.
Yes, I understand that the schedule has been helpful. In their past five games, they played three teams with losing records and two teams with winning records. They won the three games against the losing teams and lost both games against the winning teams.
This is why it’s still so difficult to analyze the Bears. They’re doing well, but against the weaker teams. Against the stronger teams, they are shaky. I agree they were just one interception drop from beating the Green Bay Packers. However, after a great first half, the offense sputtered and the defense ran out of gas.
The offense struggled again after a quick start against the Seattle Seahawks. Against the Miami Dolphins, the offense struggled through the first half before taking off. Against the New England Patriots, they sputtered for three quarters before picking up a lot of yards in the fourth quarter.
More from NFL Spin Zone
- Dallas Cowboys made the trade everyone else should have made
- Pittsburgh Steelers rookie sleeper everyone should be talking about
- Anthony Richardson putting jaw-dropping talent on display immediately
- Denver Broncos’ stud wide receiver might be out for a while
- Washington Commanders: Three takeaways from win over Ravens
With second-year quarterback Mitch Trubisky being the leader of the offense, he gets analyzed more than any other offensive player. The offense rests on his shoulders. Good or bad, he gets too much of the credit or too much of the blame.
There is a big divide on opinions of Trubisky. Bears fans are starting to come around on him as he puts up good numbers (for the most part). More and more fans feel he’s the right guy to lead the offense. On the other hand, the national media’s critique of Trubisky is harsh. Some don’t feel he is the answer and rank him at or near the bottom among starters.
Michael Lombardi, NFL writer for The Athletic and former NFL executive for several teams, scorched Trubisky (h/t NBC Sports).
"No, I’m not buying Mitchell Trubisky. You couldn’t get me to buy Mitchell Trubisky if you had him on a discount rack at Filene’s Basement. There’s no chance. There’s no chance. He can’t throw the ball inbounds half the time. I mean, it’s a joke. I was in Chicago this week and all I saw was Trubisky jerseys and I’m thinking you people are crazy. You’re going to be selling them in three years. There’s no way."
ESPN.com’s Bill Barnwell questioned whether Trubisky would even be on the team in 2020.
"Trubisky hasn’t shown enough to guarantee that he will be on the roster come 2020."
Of course, Chicago comes to Trubisky’s defense. Running back tweeted a response to Lombardi that elicited praise from Bears fans. He later explained his reaction (via the Chicago Sun Times):
"I just like having fun on Twitter. I knew it was going to get a lot of retweets and likes, so I just did it. And Mitch is my boy — you feel me? That’s like my brother on the team. So, I mean, I’m going to protect my brother."
""
Is all the criticism warranted, though? The critics talk about dropped interceptions, screens, shovel passes and blown coverages that aid Trubisky. Okay, I buy that.
The only thing, though, is that the same goes for every quarterback. How many short passes by Patrick Mahomes turned into huge plays because Kareem Hunt and Tyreek Hill made incredible moves to break tackles? Didn’t Aaron Rodgers beat the Bears in Week 1 after a dropped interception? Yes, Trubisky has his moments of shakiness. He’s on his second offense in two years, however. If you look at what he’s doing, he is progressing well.
Let me give you an example on some of the unfairness of the Trubisky criticism. Below you see quarterback A vs. quarterback B.
Quarterback A: 68.5 percent completion rate, 1,893 passing yards, 5 passing touchdowns, 4 interceptions, 342 rushing yards, 4 rushing touchdowns
Quarterback B: 64.2 percent completion rate, 1,949 passing yards, 16 passing touchdowns, 7 interceptions, 302 rushing yards, 2 rushing touchdowns
Taking a look at these stats, both quarterbacks are even in terms of production. If you take their records going into Week 10 into account, one is 6-2 and the other is 5-3. Almost even down the line. While Quarterback A, Cam Newton, is getting a lot of love from the national media (some even saying he’s in the MVP conversation), the other, Trubisky, gets bashed nationally.
It’s not fair, but winning changes all that. The Bears have a critical stretch of three games in 11 days, all against divisional foes. This three-game stretch will go a long way to crowing the division champ. If Trubisky can lead the offense to victory in two or even all three of the games, the national conversation may change.
For his part, Trubisky doesn’t listen (much) to all the noise. He declared before the season that he’s off of social media during the season. He just keeps plugging along, trying to improve each week.
It is incredible that Mitch Trubisky has become almost as big of a lightning rod of debate as Jay Cutler was. This time, however, the debate isn’t among Chicago Bears fans. This time fans have a united front and the fight is against the national media.