Chicago Bears: Mitch Trubisky feeling good under immense pressure

After taking a step up in 2018, the pressure is on Mitch Trubisky to do it again in 2019. He is the most important piece for the Chicago Bears’ title run.

The Chicago Bears are a confident bunch. Even though their season ended in heartbreak in 2018, they just use it as motivation for this season. They remember the pain and don’t want to feel it again. Of course, head coach Matt Nagy won’t let them forget, either.

I, as well as countless other writers, wrote about key players who need to step up in order for the Bears to surpass what they did last season. For the offense, however, there is one person who has all the pressure of the world on his shoulders: quarterback Mitchell Trubisky.

The quarterback is usually the face of the franchise. He’s the one who controls the offense. His decisions help determine how good the offense does in a game and in a season.

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We may worry about what the receivers or the tight ends or the running backs do, but it’s Trubisky who determines where to throw the ball and when to go to the running game. Nagy can call the plays but Trubisky needs to know when the plays called won’t work against what the defense is doing.

Therefore, there is a world of pressure thrust upon Trubisky. After last season, there are a lot of expectations for this year. We have some players nearly guaranteeing a Super Bowl win this season.

Even though many predict a bit of a regression, the defense will do its part to help bring home a title. The unit is too elite not to have another great season. With that being said, all eyes are on the offense, specifically Trubisky.

Despite all that pressure, Trubisky feels ready. While the other players take their breaks before training camp begins, Trubisky continues to think about the upcoming season. He’s ready for the season to begin, let alone training camp, per the Chicago Sun-Times:

"“It’s tough for me, because I’m just so excited and amped for the season and what we have ahead of us that [I] always want to work. But you have to take a step back in order to take even more steps forward. We’re going to come back even harder and more focused than ever. I’m excited.”"

Trubisky is practically obsessed with building on last season’s success. Players and coaches alike praise him for how much far ahead he is at grasping Nagy’s system than he was at this point last year. They see a more confident quarterback who isn’t worried about what steps he needs to take or where the receivers should be at certain routes. Today he knows all that and now just needs to diagnose the defense and make the throws.

This is what wide receiver Taylor Gabriel says about Trubisky’s development, also from the Chicago Sun-Times:

"“It’s confidence. Mitch is confident back there. He’s confident in switching the calls. We’ve got a lot of double moves out there. He’s confident in what he’s looking at. He’s not just trying to figure out what the play is. Now he gets to look up and look at the coverage. It’s just a drastic change from last year.”"

Trubisky shuts down his social media while he deals with the season. I’m sure he listens to all the talk, however. He knows that there are quite a few people who feel he’ll be the reason the Bears falter this season. Even though he says he doesn’t listen to the noise, I’m sure some of it comes through. There’d be nothing better than to silence the critics.

While those critics continue to harp on the “Trubisky isn’t the franchise quarterback the Chicago Bears need” narrative, they fail to see that he’s already been proving that wrong. Critics like to point out that he had 12 interceptions to his 24 touchdowns. However, five of those interceptions came in just two games.

In Week 10 he threw two interceptions against the Minnesota Vikings. He was injured in that game and missed the next two games. He then came back in Week 13 against the excellent Los Angeles Rams defense and the rust showed as he threw three interceptions. In his three games after the Rams game, though, he was excellent. He completed about 76 percent of his passes and threw zero interceptions, and had a 109.7 passer rating.

Trubisky continued that play into the playoff game. While people said he’d be the reason the Bears would lose, he threw for 303 yards, a touchdown and, again, zero interceptions. Additionally, after the Philadelphia Eagles scored the go-ahead touchdown late in the fourth quarter, Trubisky was calm and collected and got the Bears to the Eagles’ 25-yard line and gave kicker Cody Parkey a makeable 43-yard field goal for the win.

As we all know, it wasn’t so makeable for Parkey. That doesn’t take away from what the second-year quarterback did. He did his job to give his team a chance to win the game. While the critics keep talking, Trubisky keeps growing and performing well.

The Chicago Bears coaches, players, and fans are all excited to see Trubisky take the next step. His nearly obsessive compulsion to improve and lead the team to a long title run bodes well for Chicago. If he could get it done, we’ll see the birth of another franchise legend.