Chicago Bears open up future not picking up Mitchell Trubisky’s option
The Chicago Bears aren’t picking up Mitchell Trubisky’s fifth-year option, which leaves their future quite open at the quarterback position.
At the quarterback position, the 2017 NFL Draft changed the face of the league. The Kansas City Chiefs and Houston Texans landed two players who are already superstars in Patrick Mahomes and Deshaun Watson, respectively. Unfortunately, the Chicago Bears traded up to the No. 2 overall pick for Mitchell Trubisky — and he’s been the one in the trio to not pan out thus far.
As such, it wasn’t surprising on Saturday when news broke that the Bears won’t be picking up Trubisky’s fifth-year option. The quarterback will now become a free agent after the 2020 season and, barring some unforeseen circumstances, will likely be done in the Windy City.
Cutting ties with Trubisky opens up the future under center for Chicago. The most obvious option is Nick Foles. The Bears traded a compensatory fourth-round pick for the 31-year-old quarterback and Super Bowl LII MVP this offseason. And Chicago general manager Ryan Pace has said that he and Trubisky will have an open competition for the starting job in 2020.
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However, when the Bears landed Foles, they restructured the veteran quarterback’s contract to where they can get out of the deal after either the 2020 or 2021 seasons. In essence, if Chicago doesn’t see a bonafide starter in Foles on the field, they can get out of the deal with minimal penalties on the salary cap.
Though quarterback has been a spot of contention for the Bears and fans since they’ve attempted to bank on Trubisky, their moves in the 2020 offseason have opened up their future at the position in the immediate future.
The simple truth is that the Bears are no longer tied to Trubisky and can get away from Foles after this season as well. For a team that has a defense ready to win now and plenty of offensive talent, that’s good news for Chicago.
Where things get somewhat tricky for the franchise is that their defense and either Trubisky or Foles will likely make the team good enough in 2020 that they won’t have a shot at top prospects like Trevor Lawrence and Justin Fields in the 2021 draft. However, in what could be a decently deep quarterback draft next offseason, they should still have an opportunity to reset — perhaps with a new GM in place then as well.
Next. Way-too-early 2021 NFL Mock Draft. dark
In any case, essentially letting Trubisky loose while also having flexibility with Foles is for the best of the Bears. They now have the ability to try and remedy a bad situation under center in the near future and make good on the mistakes made in the 2017 draft.