With little else to do in the heart of summer as a Chicago Bears fan, the mind wanders. As is typical with this franchise, it tends to settle on the quarterback position. Specifically how it has remained so bad for so long. That brings the conversation around to Mitch Trubisky whom many view as the greatest bust in team history. If one were being honest though, that’s just not true.
Stop for a second and think about this. Trubisky has started 41 games across three seasons so far. He’s 23-18 with a trip to the playoffs in 2018. All told he’s thrown for 8,554 yards, 48 touchdowns, and 29 interceptions. Good for a career passer rating of 85.8. Not elite numbers by any stretch. Yet in the context of other Bears 1st round picks? He is the best there’s been.
Jim McMahon had an 84.0 rating through his first 41 games. Jim Harbaugh was a 76.8. Cade McNown and Rex Grossman didn’t even make it to 41 games. One could argue Trubisky has done more with less than those guys had. So why is he still under attack from every angle?
Mitch Trubisky represents a blown once-in-a-lifetime chance
What truly makes things hurt with him is less the person and more the situation. For the first time in many, many years the stars aligned for the Bears. In the past, it always seemed like they found their way to the top of a draft just a year too soon. They grabbed McMahon in 1982, not realizing they’d miss out on John Elway, Dan Marino, and Jim Kelly in 1983. Then in 2003, they grabbed Grossman, again missing out on a generational class led by Eli Manning, Philip Rivers, and Ben Roethlisberger the next year.
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At last in 2017, everything went right. They were bad enough to secure a top 3 pick and the class was strong at the QB position. There was the consummate winner in Deshaun Watson, the instinctive gunslinger Patrick Mahomes, and the uber-athletic Trubisky. Everybody knew Cleveland was taking Myles Garrett #1 overall, so even if San Francisco took a QB at #2, they’d have their pick of the remaining two guys. Yet that wasn’t good enough for GM Ryan Pace. He gave away three extra picks to move up one spot, handing him his choice of any of the three.
The first time that had happened to the Bears in decades…and he blew it.
Of the three guys the Bears could’ve had, they chose the exact one who hasn’t worked out. They had their fastball down the middle and still swung and missed. It was their shot to finally get out of QB purgatory and instead, they were cruelly shoved back in. Now Mahomes and Watson are superstars and an opportunity like that is unlikely to come again for a very long time.
What makes it hurt even more is Trubisky himself. He’s a good kid. He does everything right. He’s a leader, he works really hard, he loves Chicago and the fans and wants to be great. Yet it doesn’t matter because he seems to be missing that critical “it” factor people reference so often. That natural affinity separating the good quarterbacks from the rest.
This is what angers Bears fans. Not that Trubisky is a truly bad quarterback. He’s not. It is that he is the epitome of a participation trophy. A representation that Chicago gave it their best shot but didn’t get it done. Better luck next time. All the while they have to watch other fans experience what it’s like to have a QB the team wins because of rather than in spite of.
It is a depressing reality. Sometimes the only outlet is anger at the person who represents that failure. That is Mitch Trubisky.