On the eve of the Chicago Bears 2020 season, a good portion of Bears fans have already given up on the season due to quarterback Mitchell Trubisky being the starter. Trubisky beat out veteran Nick Foles to win the starting job and is entering the final year of his rookie contract. Bears fans have been especially critical of the fourth-year quarterback, but even if he has a terrific season, fans will want someone new in the offseason like always.
Trubisky hasn’t lived up to his 2017 second overall draft selection value, but he has worked immensely to try to be worthy of it. Fans continue to hold him to a standard that has been out of his control as general manager Ryan Pace drafted the North Carolina quarterback before Deshaun Watson and Patrick Mahomes. Fans locally and nationally will not let Trubisky live it down.
the “drafted after Mitchell Trubisky” club pic.twitter.com/DtH4aB4GDu
— Andrew Luck (@FauxAndyLuck) September 11, 2020
For as much as Trubisky has struggled to be on the same level as Mahomes and Watson, the Bears quarterback’s career hasn’t been a complete failure. A majority of fans loved the potential he displayed in his first two seasons. The regression and disappointment of last season by Chicago’s quarterback have led to many, if not all, fans to believe that Trubisky is a bust and failure for the Bears at quarterback.
The Bears offense last season was one of the worse in the league as Trubisky, the running game, offensive line, and play-calling all disappointed mightily. Chicago’s quarterback, even though his numbers were down from the previous season, did flash having multiple three-touchdown games and led the team on several game-winning drives too. Bears fan easily forget that in three games last season, Trubisky put the team in scoring position on their final drive. In two of the three situations, the Bears scored to take the lead and eventually won, with the one loss coming on a missed field goal at the end of regulation.
With Foles as the backup, fans are not asking if, but in what week, Trubisky will be replaced due to poor performance. Very few people believe that he can bounce back and have a good season. Even with a bounce-back season, Trubisky will still have to deal with a majority of fans who will be even more skeptical.
𝗕𝗘𝗔𝗥𝗦: “We are trading for Nick Foles…”
𝗕𝗘𝗔𝗥𝗦 𝗙𝗔𝗡𝗦: “Okay not great but at least it’s better than…”
𝗕𝗘𝗔𝗥𝗦: “…so he can back up Mitchell Trubisky as the starter.”
𝗕𝗘𝗔𝗥𝗦 𝗙𝗔𝗡𝗦: pic.twitter.com/XYbCjuqmGr
— Josh Hill (@jdavhill) September 4, 2020
If Trubisky has a stellar year or even possibly leads the team to the Super Bowl, it still will not be good enough for fans. A Pro-Bowl year by the quarterback would force the Bears to re-sign him to a significant deal or utilize an expensive franchise tag. Fans will be skeptical as they have become with anyone that is under center for the Bears. Not even the best quarterbacks can appease the Chicago fans as they have found something wrong with each quarterback.
A prime example of this is former Bear Jay Cutler’s tenure here in Chicago from 2009 to 2016. When the Bears traded for Cutler in 2009, fan instantly penciled him in a perennial Pro-Bowler who would lead the team to multiple Super Bowl titles. The former Broncos quarterback had everything Chicago fans envisioned their ideal quarterback to be. Cutler had the smug attitude, the rocket arm, was mobile, and was competitive. After a disappointing 2009 season, fans stuck by the quarterback, but that would all change after the 2010 NFC Championship game.
When the Bears’ quarterback went down at halftime of the game with a knee injury, fans automatically viewed him as weak because the team delayed announcing the severity of his injury. From that point on, Cutler was dead to a majority of Bears fans, and nothing he could do would win them back. Many saw him as a quarterback that had the wrong attitude and wasn’t tough enough physically, along with mentally to be a winner. Although not statistically the best, Cutler’s time in Chicago was impressive just from what he was able to accomplish and how he did it.
Ouch. The same injury, by the way, that Jay Cutler had during the NFC Championship Game. The same injury the country just saw Klay Thompson limp off to in awful pain and sympathy, but that Cutler was ripped for.
Never forget the nonsensical double standards in sports. https://t.co/IFeXMdZyWF
— Dhruv Koul (@DhruvKoul) June 1, 2018
During his eight seasons in Chicago, six of those seasons were spent learning a new playbook with a new offensive coach. Cutler, from 2009 to 2013, outside of Greg Olsen, did not have any top-tier wide receivers or tight ends to throw to. Bears fans forget how many games that the quarterback won because of his talent alone. In 2015 alone, Cutler led the team to comebacks in their first three wins of the season. Despite all of this, if you listened to Bears fans, you would have been led to believe that the quarterback had only hindered the team’s chances to win.
With fans already ready to give up on Trubisky, it goes to show that the fan base is more inclined to give up on a quarterback than to hope for something better. Chicago fans are the same fan base that will go crazy for any third-string quarterback that impresses during the preseason and instantly calls for that quarterback to be named the starter. Fans are entitled to cheer and boo for their quarterback, but to see one as a failure before the season begins isn’t right. Trubisky could do it all this season, and Bears fans will still not like him. It might not be him, but just the way Bears fans are.
