The John Fox Mitch Trubisky situation is a complicated one. The veteran head coach didn’t draft the young quarterback during his first year in charge. This is his third year. Fox has one season left on his contract. That means he doesn’t have the luxury of time in trying to get progress out of the #2 overall pick. General feelings are if the Chicago Bears don’t win enough games or at least see positive play from Trubisky, Fox will be fired.
As things stand, it’s not looking good for him. The Bears are 3-5 at the halfway point of 2017. Trubisky has thrown two touchdowns, two interceptions and failed to top 200 yards passing in any of his four starts. Nonetheless Fox certainly doesn’t seem rattled by the prospect. In fact he’s displayed quite a bit of optimism.
The defense is playing some excellent football of late. Jordan Howard is once again a beast in the running game. He’s no stranger to winning football games with those two elements out front. That doesn’t means he has marginalized Trubisky though. When talking with Dan Pompei of The Athletic, he defended how he’s gone about developing the rookie thus far.
John Fox Mitch Trubisky relationship about faith and patience
“No. It’s not just him. You never want to put it on one guy. It’s not one guy. You don’t do that, it’s not football. There is a lot that goes into that. It’s the protection. It’s the matchup with receivers. It Is the matchup with the tight ends. It’s the situation in the game, all three phases. A lot was made of the Carolina game, that we ran the ball more.
You do things necessary to win games, and that’s what it comes down to. It doesn’t matter if you have a 10-year quarterback or a one-year quarterback. It’s how our whole team operates in the passing game — not just the quarterback, and then how we match up with our opponent. They’re all different. Green Bay is going to be different from New Orleans.”
Fox seemed clear on his version of the fact. The situation of personnel and the teams they were facing dictated the decision to have Trubisky throw less often. To be fair he’s got a case. The four teams the rookie has started against (MIN, BAL, CAR, and NO) all now have top 10 defenses in points allowed. They also all rank in the top 12 against the pass. Throw Trubisky, who had 13 college starts prior to getting drafted, against that level of competition with limited talent at wide receiver?
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Fox won’t apologize for not putting the burden on Trubisky’s shoulders in the fact of that. Love or hate that, one must respect it. If this is his last year, Fox is doing things his way. Whether that’s the right way for the young quarterback remains to be determined.
