Chicago Bears: 5 Bold predictions for 2019 pre-training camp

1. Mitch Trubisky will put it together and lead the offense to a big year

Ever since the Chicago Bears drafted Mitchell Trubisky controversy has surrounded him. Pace felt he could be the face of the franchise and did what he could to get him. He gave up a lot of draft capital to make sure he had his man.

In his rookie season, Trubisky had John Fox, a coach with a run-first philosophy. He had qualms with the rookie so he didn’t put him in until he had no choice. The starter, Mike Glennon, was practically giving games away so Trubisky finally got his chance. Even so, Fox had a short lease on the rookie. The offense ranked dead last in passing attempts.

After the Bears fired Fox, Pace wanted to have the right coach to develop Trubisky. He put a lot on the line with him and if the young quarterback failed that would probably signal the end of his tenure as general manager in Chicago. He wasn’t about to let that happen.

Nagy and Trubisky had a pretty good first year. Trubisky completed about 67 percent of his passes for 3,223 yards and 24 touchdowns to go with 12 interceptions. He also ran for 421 yards and three rushing touchdowns.

Considering it was the third offensive system in his last three seasons, Trubisky did fairly well. While he kept doing his thing, however, people didn’t believe in him. As the Bears kept winning games the critics said Trubisky would be the cause of their downfall.

Well, that didn’t happen. In the playoff game, Trubisky completed 26 of his 43 passes for 303 yards and a touchdown. He played especially well on the last drive and got the offense in range for a game-winning field goal. It didn’t go the Bears way but Trubisky did his job. Also, while he had 12 interceptions, he had none over his final four games (including the playoffs).

Trubisky spent this offseason working on his mechanics and getting a better grasp of the offensive system. His teammates notice a change from last year to today. Here is what wide receiver Taylor Gabriel said about Trubisky, via ESPN:

"Mitch is confident back there. He’s confident in switching the playcalls. He’s confident in, I mean, giving us a double move. 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. So I feel like, like I said, it’s just a drastic change from last year."

As Gabriel mentioned, now Trubisky has a better grasp of the offense. Last season, he was still learning the system as the season progressed. Now, however, he’s got it and what he needs to do is diagnose defenses and make the right calls.

With a better grasp of the offense, Trubisky will flourish. He’ll quiet the critics. Remember, this offense is very similar to what the Kansas City Chiefs run. The Bears even have similar personnel in the system. Patrick Mahomes was able to sit a season and learn. When he did, he took full advantage of how the system is designed to make quarterbacks look good. Mahomes ended up being the NFL’s MVP winner for the season.

With an opportunity to finally run a system for another season I think he breaks the Bears’ all-time season record for passing yards and passing touchdowns. He came within 614 yards last season and he missed two games.

Maybe Trubisky doesn’t end up as great as Mahomes. However, maybe he does. Remember, as good as some thought Mahomes could be, I don’t think anyone expected what he did. At any rate, if Trubisky does what he needs to do, this offense can be as dominant as the defense.

Prediction: 4,139 yards, 67.6 percent passing completion rate, 33 touchdowns, 9 interceptions; 547 yards rushing, 4 touchdowns