The Chicago Bears have a tortured history at quarterback no other team can touch. It’s become a running joke among NFL analysts and media. The darkest moment in franchise history was in 2017 when they drafted Mitch Trubisky out of North Carolina over Patrick Mahomes, the new face of the league. Everybody knows the story by now. Trubisky had a solid second season in 2018, helping the Bears win the division. After that, everything fell apart, fueled by a growing rift between him and head coach Matt Nagy. Amidst that chaos was GM Ryan Pace, the man who’d sold everybody on Trubisky in the first place.
Pace had insisted after the draft that there was full consensus inside Halas Hall regarding the Trubisky pick. In reality, that was far from the truth. Most of the coaching staff didn’t even know the Bears were taking a quarterback before it happened. On top of that, some in the scouting department preferred Mahomes. Still, Pace went ahead with the pick anyway. It seems even those inside his inner circle didn’t take long to cool on Trubisky, even after that playoff run in 2018. Tyler Dunne of Go Long revealed this.
The GM told everybody that he wanted honest evaluations, even letting the coaches know they wouldn’t be offending him by grading a draft pick poorly. Only harsh honesty would get these Bears over the top. The No. 1 objective: Figuring out if Trubisky’s first year with Nagy was a sign of things to come. In 14 starts, the quarterback completed 66.6 percent of his passes for 3,223 yards with 24 touchdowns and 12 interceptions. He also ran for 421 yards and three scores.
The coaches believed. The coaches, one source says, graded Trubisky “way higher” than the personnel staff. Whereas members on the personnel side viewed Trubisky as a “win-with starter,” the coaches gave Trubisky red grades. Which meant they viewed him as a Pro Bowl-level quarterback who could win a Super Bowl. The only color higher was blue.
While nobody can say he would’ve been a star, he showed that in his second year, he could keep the team competitive as long the roster remained strong. However, people turned on him anyway. No doubt some of this was fueled by Mahomes’ rapid ascent, throwing 50 touchdowns that same season. Then things were made worse when former coach Brad Childress warned Nagy that the quarterback was worthless. This caused the head coach to turn on him as well. Once it became clear many in the building didn’t believe in him, Trubisky’s confidence was shattered.
The best part is Pace, the man who supposedly believed in him the most, did nothing to stop the rot. He acquiesced to Nagy’s wishes rather than trying to rock the boat. The falling out with Fox probably had a lot to do with that. Pace always talked about conviction. Nobody had more conviction in Mitch Trubisky than he did. If anybody failed the former 3rd overall pick, it was the GM. It seems rather fitting that his own personnel staff second-guessed his decision almost from the start.
