Mitch Trubisky remains a hot topic these days. This isn’t a huge surprise. His career has been under a microscope for three years since being draft #2 overall in 2017. Now many wonder if this might be his last season in a Chicago Bears uniform. One where he could end up riding the bench depending on how this upcoming competition with Nick Foles goes.
It’s been an incredible fall from grace after things seemingly took off in 2018. A 12-4 season, Pro Bowl alternate honors and the first-ever 300-yard passer in a Bears playoff game. For the briefest of windows, Trubisky looked like the guy. Then 2019 happened. Inconsistencies plagued him all year. Too often he had that deer-in-headlights look a team can’t afford from their quarterback.
This has led to conversations. Is Trubisky the worst franchise-altering decision the Bear have ever made. Let’s find out.
Mitch Trubisky has a place among the worst decisions in Bears history
Dishonorable mentions:
Passing on Joe Montana
Subscribe to the BFR Youtube channel and ride shotgun with Dave and Ficky as they break down Bears football like nobody else.
Bears history is littered with what-ifs when it comes to the quarterback position. Trubisky is hardly the first. One that just a few years ago saw the light of day occurred in 1979. The team had designs on taking Notre Dame quarterback Joe Montana in the 3rd round. They even took his name off the board and everything.
Then GM Jim Finks balked. He felt the team had too many QBs already and not enough depth at running back. So Montana was put back on the board and the Bears took Willie McClendon instead. A few spots later Montana landed with the San Francisco 49ers. He would go on to a Hall of Fame career including four Super Bowl titles.
Playing Brian Urlacher in the 2011 finale
A first-ballot Hall of Famer, nobody can ever say Urlacher was anything but a grand slam addition to the franchise. However, it’s hard not to wonder if his career ended prematurely. Towards the end of 2011 he was 33-years old and still the freak athlete he’d been for years.
Then, during a meaningless season finale in Minnesota in 2011, teammate Major Wright landed on top of him as both were trying to break up a pass in the end zone. Urlacher bent back awkwardly, shredding ligaments in his left knee. That injury ended up robbing him of his trademark athleticism, something that showed up constantly the next year. The linebacker retired in 2013 and the defense fell apart after he left.
Would he have played a lot longer if Lovie Smith had given him the day off that fateful Sunday in Minneapolis?
Drafting Shea McClellin
Look back over history. Often one can determine whether a GM will be a success or a failure based on his first official draft pick. Anybody will have seen that Phil Emery was destined for disaster when he chose Shea McClellin 19th overall in 2012.
Nothing about it made sense. He’d been a linebacker at Boise State and didn’t have the size or natural strength of a 4-3 defensive end. Meanwhile, Chandler Jones out of Syracuse went two picks later at #21. He has 96 sacks and counting in his career. That misfire played a big part in the sharp decline of the Bears defense over the next several seasons.
10. Drafting Curtis Enis
If people are looking for a definitive moment where it first became clear that the Bears had fallen behind the rest of the league in modern offensive philosophy, it was in 1998. That year they grabbed Penn State running back Curtis Enis with the 5th overall pick. No doubt hoping he’d be their next Walter Payton or Neal Anderson.
He ended up being nothing. His career was beset by injuries from the start and he lasted just three seasons in Chicago. If they’d been thinking with a more modern approach, they might’ve grabbed left tackle Tra Thomas (3x Pro Bowler) or even taking a calculated risk on a speedy kid out of Marshall named Randy Moss.
Hell, if they were so committed to running backs then Fred Taylor out of Florida was sitting there as well.
09. Drafting Cade McNown
Typically a draft is defined by one moment or pick, good or bad. The Bears managed to end the millennium in “style” in 1999. Most fans remember this one. Chicago was picking 7th overall that year. They were looking for a quarterback. The class had some intriguing names. Three ended up going in the first three picks though. That left the team with a dilemma.
Take the best QB on their board or the best player?
De facto GM Mark Hatley opted for the former. He traded back with Washington from #7, getting multiple extra picks including #12 overall. There he selected Cade McNown out of UCLA. One pick after the Vikings grabbed future four-time Pro Bowler Daunte Culpepper. McNown made it just two seasons with the Bears before they traded him to Miami. What’s worse is the Redskins ended up taking a young man named Champ Bailey with that 7th pick. He is now in the Hall of Fame.
08. Calling heads
When it comes to scoring that elusive star quarterback, nothing plays a greater role than plain old luck. A team has to be in the right place, the right time, and have the right person in charge in order to make it happen. It seemed following a dismal 1-13 season in 1969, the Bears were ready to herald a new era at the start of the 1970s. There was even a prize waiting in the draft. A rocket-armed QB out of Louisiana Tech named Terry Bradshaw.
There was just one problem The Pittsburgh Steelers finished with the same record the Bears did. That meant a coin flip would be needed to decide who claimed rights to the #1 overall pick in the 1970 draft. Ed McCaskey, the team’s vice president and treasurer at the time was tasked with calling the flip. He called heads. It came up tails. Bradshaw went to the Steelers, won four Super Bowls and made the Hall of Fame.
Chicago had two winning seasons the entire decade.
07. Trading for Mike Phipps
Jim Finks is still the best GM in Bears history. His track record is nearly flawless. Emphasis on the nearly in this case. The one position he never seemed to grasp was, of course, quarterback. Most might look at his failure to draft Montana as his biggest, but he made a far more egregious mistakes when he flipped a 1st round pick to the Cleveland Browns for Mike Phipps.
It’s a move that still has no basis in logic. Phipps was a former star at Purdue but had been a complete dud as a #3 overall pick for Cleveland. In seven seasons, he had 40 touchdowns to 81 interceptions. Yet Finks overlooked all of that and gave up what became the 23rd pick in the 1978 draft.
A pick the Browns would use on a tight end out of Alabama named Ozzie Newsome. Phipps lasted five seasons in Chicago, started 20 games, and finished with a 57.1 passer rating.
06. Drafting Cedric Benson
To this day it’s hard to grasp what former Bears GM Jerry Angelo was thinking back in 2005. He had the #4 pick in the draft and plenty of needs it could’ve addressed. Instead he decided to spend it on a luxury running back in Cedric Benson. Chicago already had a solid runner for their offense in Thomas Jones. Wasting a top 5 pick on that position again seemed misguided.
Of course that wasn’t the worst part. Records revealed that Benson wasn’t wild about going to Chicago. It wasn’t a team on his wish list. So not only did they draft a player they didn’t really need. They drafted him against his will. Always a recipe for disaster.
If that weren’t bad enough, the decision caused a young quarterback named Aaron Rodgers to continue slipping down the board and right into the loving embrace of the hated Green Bay Packers. A decision that continues to haunt the Bears to this day. Benson was gone after 2007, having never topped 700 yards rushing in any of his three seasons.
05. Trading for Rick Mirer
Finks dealing for Phipps was pretty bad. However, it’s hard to see that topping their decision to trade for Rick Mirer in 1997. The former #2 pick had flamed out hard after four seasons in Seattle. Anybody with common sense wouldn’t have offered more than a mid round pick to gamble on maybe turning him around. Mark Hatley (remember him) was in his first year running the front office. He bid against himself in the worst way, trading the eventual 11th overall pick for the QB.
If the Bears had kept that pick, they would’ve had their choice of premium offensive talents waiting. One was running back Warrick Dunn. Another was Tarik Glenn. Yet they pale in comparison to a former basketball standout named Tony Gonzalez. He went on to be the most productive tight end in NFL history.
Mirer lasted one season in Chicago.
04. Not signing Kurt Warner (twice)
Looking back, 1997 and 2005 might’ve been the deepest valleys the Bears ever hit in regards to quarterback misses. Is it any coincidence that Kurt Warner was involved both times?
Back in ’97, Warner was a standout in the Arena Football League for the Iowa Barnstormers. He’d been hoping to break into the NFL as a tryout player. One day he got a call from the Bears about coming in for a workout. Initially thrilled, he was forced to postpone on twice because he was getting married and then had a honeymoon to attend. The plan was for him to head for Chicago when he returned.
Unfortunately those plans were ruined when he contracted a severe infection in his throwing elbow. The result of a spider bite he received while on vacation.
Fed up, the Bears ended up not bringing him in.
Eight years later, Warner’s career was once again in limbo. He’d been released by the Rams in 2004 and spent that season with the Giants. In 2005 he was a free agent again and talked to the Bears about a possible contract. His only request was that the team give him an opportunity to compete with Rex Grossman for the starting job.
Chicago said no. Because of course they did.
Warner ended up signing with the Arizona Cardinals. By 2007, he was their starter and led them to the Super Bowl in 2008. How different might’ve the Bears’ Super Bowl run been in 2006 had Warner been on the roster?
03. Drafting Mitch Trubisky
The moment has arrived. Pretty much everybody knows the story by now. Ryan Pace had run the Bears for two seasons, rebuilding the roster. He was finally ready to take his shot at quarterback. He had the #3 pick in the draft and three quality options to choose from. Texas Tech gunslinger Patrick Mahomes, Clemson national champion Deshaun Watson, and up-and-comer Mitch Trubisky.
Pace defied conventional wisdom by pretty much locking in on Trubisky before the pre-draft process really began. For an idea, he never met personally with Watson. The GM was smitten and there was no stopping him. He was so committed that he traded three picks to the San Francisco 49ers to move up from #3 to #2.
Three years later? Mahomes is an MVP and Super Bowl champion. Watson is a two-time Pro Bowler. Trubisky just had his 5th-year option declined and is battling Nick Foles for his job. Where would the Bears have been in 2018 had Mahomes or Watson been their QB? It’s a question that still gives fans nightmares.
02. Marc Trestman over Bruce Arians
As vital as quarterbacks are, one could argue successful football teams rely much more on the presence of a good head coach. Lovie Smith was a perfect example. He managed to win a lot of games despite Rex Grossman and Kyle Orton making up more than half of his tenure with the Bears. Firing him in 2013 to this day is a move deserving of criticism.
That said, the organization still had a chance to find an adequate replacement. New GM Phil Emery was determined to find an offensive-minded presence who could finally unlock the full potential of quarterback Jay Cutler. After an exhaustive interview process, his list narrowed to two possible choices. One was two-time Grey Cup winner Marc Trestman from the CFL and the other was reigning NFL Coach of the Year Bruce Arians.
Like Pace with Trubisky, it seems Emery fell in love with the idea of what Trestman could bring to the position. This despite Arians having just taken Indianapolis to the playoffs with a rookie quarterback. After some disagreements over what he’d prefer regarding his staff makeup, specifically the retention of defensive coordinator Rod Marinelli, the decision was made. Trestman became the new head coach.
The decision was a disaster from the start.
Chicago had hoped Trestman’s arrival would allow them to keep Marinelli. Instead, that move convinced the old coach to resign and move on to other opportunities. This led to the hiring of Mel Tucker, leading to the greatest single-year defensive collapse in franchise history. The Bears went from 3rd in points allowed in 2012 to 30th his first year in charge.
Trestman went 13-19 in two seasons, during which a litany of fractures appeared in the locker room. A rift formed between him and Cutler, completely defeating the purpose of Trestman’s hire. Meanwhile, Arians headed off to Arizona where he rapidly turned around the Cardinals and had them in the NFC championship by 2015.
01. Trading Bobby Layne
George Halas had few regrets after concluding his epic career as coach, GM, and owner of the Bears. He’d won a lot of games and built some incredibly successful teams. Howver, even he was prone to bad decisions. When lamenting his career at one point, he admitted the greatest mistake of his life was selling off the rights to Bobby Layne.
Layne was drafted by the Bears in 1948. It was hoped he could compete for the starting job down the line once Sid Luckman’s career wound down. However, the Texas-native grew restless. With teammate Johnny Lujack emerging as the likely heir to Luckman by the beginning of the 1950s, he tried to force his way out of town.
Halas, preoccupied with upstart All-American Football Conference, granted his request for a trade by sending him to the New York Bulldogs for a 1st round pick. It didn’t take long for him to realize the mistake.
Layne was traded to Detroit in 1950.
He led the team to a 6-6 record, their first non-losing season in five years. By the next year, he was a Pro Bowler and then took the final step in 1952. During an All-Pro campaign, he led Detroit to their first of three NFL championships during the decade. Layne would end up in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
If that weren’t bad enough, Lujack, the man Halas pinned as his next franchise guy, retired abruptly at 27-years old. This to pursue a coaching opportunity at his alma mater Notre Dame. One could argue the Bears were the true first victim of the Bobby Layne Curse. Is it a coincidence the QB position has been a nightmare ever since?
