Rodney Harrison is a former All-Pro safety and two-time Super Bowl champion. He’s never been afraid to throw around his opinion when asked. He certainly did that recently on a podcast interview with JJ Stankevitz of NBC Sports Chicago. His favorite target of opportunity was Mitch Trubisky. Harrison can’t understand why the Chicago Bears are even bothering to keep him in the picture at this point. In his mind, it’s already clear the 25-year old quarterback can’t play.
He should know too. Harrison played with some rough QBs in his day including one of the greatest busts in league history. One he seemed to put Trubisky in the same category with.
“Let me tell you something, I’m an expert on quarterback busts — bad quarterbacks — because I played with Ryan Leaf,” Harrison said. “And I tell you, you just don’t have the patience for these young guys that just can’t play.”
Is that fair? Not really no. Leaf is a former #2 overall pick. He was talented and also raw like Trubisky was. The difference is Leaf was never good. Ever. He had a couple of decent games to start his career and then it was all downhill from there. Trubisky has at least had high points. Something Harrison doesn’t count. If one were to make a comparison? A more fitting one is this.
Mitch Trubisky could be the next Kerry Collins
Kerry Collins was the 5th overall pick of the 1995 NFL draft. The expansion Carolina Panthers viewed him as their franchise man of the future. Things started slowly with an up-and-down as a rookie. Then in his second season, Collins seemed to break through. He cut down his interceptions by more than half (19 to 9), made the Pro Bowl, and led the Panthers to a 12-4 record.
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Sound familiar?
Expectations were high in 1997. Rather than take the next step though, Collins regressed badly. He threw 21 interceptions and completed barely 52% of his passes. Due to that, a good Panthers team finished 7-9 losing five of their final seven games. A year later, he started the year 0-4 and lost his job to veteran backup Steve Beuerlein. A veteran who’d come over the previous season from the Jacksonville Jaguars.
The similarities with Trubisky are pretty obvious.
Collins ended up being waived that same season. After a half year stint in New Orleans, he signed with the New York Giants and went on to have a brief career revival there. He led them to the Super Bowl in 2000 and had over 4,000 yards in 2002. After that he sort of became a journeyman, never finding that magic formula to become the franchise guy.
Trubisky sits at that pivotal crossroads. It’s his fourth year. The same one Collins crashed and burned. The Bears have acquired their veteran backup in Nick Foles. Somebody even more threatening than Beuerlein was. Will he break from the path or is it inevitable at this point?