As the nation continues to fawn over the historic stat lines Patrick Mahomes is putting up in Kansas City, it wouldn’t be sports media culture in 2018 if we didn’t also tear somebody else down to equal proportion, right?
Enter Chicago Bears quarterback Mitchell Trubisky. Yes, Mahomes is balling out and he deserves all the praise he’s receiving, much like how Deshaun Watson took the NFL by storm in 2017. But that’s no reason to denigrate Trubisky for failing to reach Mahomes and Watson levels at the start of his career. Trubisky was 4-8 in 12 starts as a rookie last year and posted four games of a 97.0 passer rating or higher. He triumphed over a Carolina Panthers team that made the playoffs, pulled out an overtime victory at Baltimore and suffered multiple narrow defeats, including twice on field goals inside the final 10 seconds.
He did this all with a team severely deprived of offensive weapons, specifically at wide receiver. This explains why the Bears invested ample free agent dollars in pass catchers Allen Robinson, Taylor Gabriel and Trey Burton, and a second round draft pick in flanker Anthony Miller. And even this revamped unit has nothing on the likes of Travis Kelce and Tyreek Hill in Kansas City, or Deandre Hopkins and Will Fuller in Houston. After inheriting a defensive-minded head coach, Trubisky was forced to learn a new offense this summer after John Fox was replaced by the innovative Matt Nagy.
This season, Trubisky’s Bears would be 2-0 if not for a complete defensive breakdown in the second half of Week 1’s Sunday night game against the Packers. Those quick to point out Mitchell’s defense being responsible for the heavy lifting of Chi-city’s success would be correct, but that’s nothing for a young signal-caller to be ashamed of.
Tom Brady won a Super Bowl as a red-shirt freshman, but he was hardly the passing savant in 2001 that he is today. Ben Roethlisberger and Russell Wilson also won titles in year two. However Big Ben won his first ring with possibly the shittiest stat line by a winning quarterback in Super Bowl history, and Russ also completed only nine passes for an embarrassing 103 yards in his first playoff win of his championship run. Future Super Bowl winning quarterback Joe Flacco handily defeated the Patriots in New England in his second season by completing a cool 4-10 passes for 34 yards and an interception. You could literally count his passer rating on your hands! (Who knew that was possible?)
Mitchell Trubisky is right on schedule. He now has suitable weaponry at his disposal and a creative play-caller on the sideline. He has the makings of an elite defense behind him, and he’s learning on the job while not bleeding the team’s cap dry with a massive salary. The biggest reason we’re hearing words like “limited” to describe him is because Trubisky was the first quarterback taken in last year’s draft, and his 2017 draft classmates (Mahomes and Watson) have gotten off to such lighting fast starts. But there’s little evidence that they’ll be able to sustain this level of production (or stay healthy in Watson’s case), and money makin’ Mitch is on the same trajectory of several other successful QBs of this era.
Nobody is calling for the Bears to win Super Bowl LIII, nor is anyone calling Trubisky a future All-Pro. But the criticism levied against him isn’t congruent with the overall output we should reasonably expect to see. So don’t let the wrecked curve curb your enthusiasm.