Mitch Trubisky is under a rather incredible amount of scrutiny after the Sunday night loss in Green Bay to open the season. He finished with 174 yards, no TD passes, and no interceptions. It was a rather quiet night for him as a passer, though he did rush for a touchdown early in the game. Yet people are making it out to seem like he threw the game away.
Yes, he didn’t play his best but he was not the reason that the team lost. The defense giving up 21 points in the fourth quarter is a big reason. Conservative play calling is another. Trubisky missed some opportunities, but he didn’t give the game away. Care to know some other quarterbacks around the league who had worse games than him?
All had lower and sometimes much lower quarterback ratings than Trubisky. So what’s the deal? It likely comes down to a lack of patience. People wanted to see him click in that Matt Nagy offense right away. That West Coast-college spread hybrid that did such good things in Kansas City. Why didn’t it happen?
The answer is rather simple, and history explains it.
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History says Mitch Trubisky doesn’t need changes, he needs time
Here’s the thing about the West Coast offense. It’s hard. Really hard. There’s a reason it’s been around for over four decades. It is incredibly complex and has only grown more so over the years as coaches like Nagy put their own spin on it. Certain plays can have 10 words or more in it just to pronounce, laying out what everybody is expected to do.
It’s unreasonable to expect a quarterback to memorize a full playbook of that and then execute flawlessly right away. it doesn’t work like that. History proves that much. Here is a rundown of many notable QBs who experienced the West Coast system, how they started and when they truly figured it out.
Joe Montana – 2nd year
- First start: 5-of-12, 36 yards, 0 TDs, 0 INTs
- First season (1980): 176-of-273, 1,795 yards, 15 TDs, 9 INTs
- Second season (1981): 311-of-488, 3,565 yards, 19 TDs, 12 INTs
Of course, the original maestro of the “West Coast” scheme was Ken Anderson in Cincinnati but the man who made it go viral was Joe Montana with the San Francisco 49ers. Believe it or not, even the future Hall of Famer went through some early headaches. It took Walsh a full season to get the proper mechanics ingrained in him. By Year 2 in 1981 though, it paid off with a Super Bowl title.
Boomer Esiason – 2nd year
- First start: 13-of-24, 159 yards, 0 TDs, 2 INTs
- First season (1984): 51-of-102, 530 yards, 3 TDs, 3 INTs
- Second season (1985): 251-of-431, 3,443 yards, 27 TDs, 12 INTs
Esiason was inherited by Walsh disciple Sam Wyche, who’d been Montana’s quarterback coach in San Francisco. The two didn’t get off to the best start. Boomer was a wild buck who tended to be undisciplined with his approach. Soon enough that changed and he broke out in his second year. He eventually became league MVP in 1988.
Brett Favre – 3rd year
- First start: 14-of-19, 210 yards, 2 TDs, 0 INTs
- First season (1992): 302-of-471, 3,227 yards, 18 TDs, 13 INTs
- Second season (1993): 318-of-522, 3,303 yards, 19 TDs, 24 INTs
- Third season (1994): 363-of-582, 3,882 yards, 33 TDs, 14 INTs
There was no questioning Favre’s talent. His arm was otherworldly and he was a better athlete than he got credit for. Walsh’s protege Mike Holmgren, who was the offensive coordinator for the 49ers during their 1988 and 1989 championship runs, still needed time to break the young QB of some bad habits. Namely poor decision-making and inconsistent mechanics.
Warren Moon – 2nd year
- First start: 20-of-37, 166 yards, 0 TDs, 3 INTs
- First season (1993): 371-of-601, 4,264 yards, 18 TDs, 19 INTs
- Second season (1994): 377-of-606, 4,228 yards, 33 TDs, 14 INTs
It wasn’t until 38-years old that Moon got his first taste of the West Coast offense. Before that he’d made his name in the Run-and-Shoot with the Houston Oilers. The change came as quite a shock, but head coach Dennis Green was undeterred. Green had been with Walsh from 1986 to 1988 in San Francisco. He trusted that with time the old veteran would catch on. He was right.
Donovan McNabb – 2nd year
- First start: 8-of-21, 60 yards, 0 TDs, 0 INTs
- First season (1999): 106-of-216, 948 yards, 8 TDs, 7 INTs
- Second season (2000): 330-of-569, 3,365 yards, 21 TDs, 13 INTs
People were concerned about McNabb coming out of Syracuse. They felt that he had too much of a run-first mentality and wouldn’t be able to adapt into the pocket passer he needed to be. Andy Reid, who’d just taken over in Philadelphia and was a Holmgren disciple, disagreed. It took some adjusting but McNabb caught on and went to the Pro Bowl his second year.
Jeff Garcia – 2nd year
- First start: 21-of-33, 243 yards, 2 TDs, 0 INTs
- First season (1999): 225-of-375, 2,544 yards, 11 TDs, 11 INTs
- Second season (2000): 355-of-561, 4,278 yards, 31 TDs, 10 INTs
Garcia was a fish out of water in 1999. He’d come over from the CFL and had the dubious honor of having to replace 49ers legend Steve Young. He’d never seen something like the West Coast system up north and it showed. Steve Mariucci, who’d taken over for longtime Walsh right-hand man George Seifert, stuck it out and was rewarded with a Pro Bowl the next year.
Rich Gannon – 2nd year
- First start: 21-of-44, 266 yards, 2 TDs, 1 INT
- First season (1992): 159-of-279, 1,905 yards, 12 TDs, 13 INTs
- Second season (1999): 304-of-515, 3,840 yards, 24 TDs, 14 INTs
The amazing thing about Gannon is he played in the West Coast offense for the first time as a starter in ’92 and then was released to sign elsewhere. He didn’t find a team that implemented it again until Jon Gruden came calling in 1999 with the Oakland Raiders. Clearly, Gannon hadn’t forgotten what he learned seven years earlier in Minnesota.
Matt Hasselbeck – 3rd year
- First start: 20-of-34, 178 yards, 0 TDs, 2 INTs
- First season (2001): 176-of-321, 2,023 yards, 7 TDs, 8 INTs
- Second season (2002): 267-of-419, 3,075 yards, 15 TDs, 10 INTs
- Third season (2003): 313-of-513, 3,841 yards, 26 TDs, 15 INTs
Hasselbeck had actually learned the system during his long stint as backup quarterback of Favre in Green Bay. Then when Holmgren took over in Seattle in 2001, he finally got his chance. He quickly learned that understanding a system and executing it are two different things. Over time though he began to master it and was in the Pro Bowl by his third year.
Kirk Cousins – 2nd year
- First start: 26-of-37, 329 yards, 2 TDs, 1 INT
- First season (2014): 126-of-204, 1,710 yards, 10 TDs, 9 INTs
- Second season (2015): 379-of-543, 4,166 yards, 29 TDs, 11 INTs
The West Coast experience for Cousins actually began as a rookie in 2012 under Kyle Shanahan, who was the son to Mike Shanahan, a former 49ers offensive coordinator in the mid-1990s. However, he was gone by 2014 and replaced by Jay Gruden, brother to Jon Gruden. It was only when he arrived that Cousins became the starter. Things were a rollercoaster at the start, but he broke out in a big way the next year.
Bears examples:
Believe it or not, there are a few Bears nuggets in the history vault to help further drive home the details of this offense. This one was actually a variation of it created by former offensive coordinator Ron Turner who employed many similar concepts. The results were quite similar as well.
Erik Kramer – 2nd year
- First start: 18-of-25, 212 yards, 2 TDs, 0 INTs
- First season: 99-of-158, 1,129 yards, 8 TDs, 8 INTs
- Second season: 315-of-522, 3,838 yards, 29 TDs, 10 INTs
Kramer still holds the Bears single-season passing records for both most yards and most touchdown passes. Considering he was a journeyman his entire career, that’s fairly impressive. Chicago did the right thing back then surrounding him with proper weapons like Curtis Conway and Jeff Graham.
Rex Grossman – 3rd year
- First start: 16-of-35, 227 yards, 0 TDs, 2 INTs
- First season: 47-of-84, 607 yards, 1 TD, 3 INTs
- Second season: 28-of-64, 358 yards, 2 TDs, 3 INTs
- Third season: 262-of-480, 3,193 yards, 23 TDs, 20 INTs
Yes, even the man they call “Gross, man” showcased improvement in Turner’s variation system. Grossman went through some injury troubles his first two seasons, which stunted his progress. Still, by 2006 he was finally healthy and ended up having the best year of his career. It wasn’t great but the improvement was still substantial in context.
The verdict throughout all of that? Quarterbacks usually have the system nailed down by their second year and no later than their third. This might not satisfy a lot of Bears fans. They demand Trubisky be great now. They’ve waited too long to be relevant at quarterback. So here’s an olive branch.
Quarterbacks consistently began to show progress towards the end of their first years in the offense. Montana had 3 TDs and 3 INTs in his first three starts. He had 7 TDs and 3 INTs in his final four. Favre? He had 3 TDs and 5 INTs respectively in his first six starts with 10 and 7 over the remaining seven. The point remains the same.
Give Trubisky time.
