Mitch Trubisky is a Bad Bears QB but a Good NFL Quarterback, Kyle Long Explains

The Chicago Bears have always had a bad quarterback issue. It seems regardless of what they try to do or who they bring in, the end result is the same. The Bears traded up to the second pick (from the third spot) in the 2017 draft to pick Mitchell Trubisky, QB from the University of North Carolina. He was to be the answer, in a draft that had Deshaun Watson and Patrick Mahomes, Trubisky was to be the answer.

In the next season, while playing for the strong-minded and often stuck in his ways John Fox, Trubisky found his way into the starting job when we all learned Mike Glennon was a horrific waste of time, space, money, and energy.

In that season, and under Pace, the Bears were a ground-pounding tough-nosed team (however they typically fell short when it came to the scoreboard). The entire organization was built up as that I-formation offense that got off the bus running the ball. Allowing the quarterback to shine through play-action and bootleg passes after the defense dropped a safety into the box. That is what Mitch Trubisky was brought to Chicago to do.

Unknown at the time of the draft, Fox wouldn’t make it to the next season and Ryan Pace was setting his sights on the next head coach in Matt Nagy.

Nagy comes from the Andy Reid tree, which teaches a very creative style of the west coast offense. The west coast offense is built off short, horizontal passes in lieu of running the ball. Receivers running shorter eight to 15-yard, higher percentage routes. Over the past several years, more and more coaches have added layers of additional creativity to the west coast offense, making it even more difficult for traditional defenses to contain them.

While the west coast offense doesn’t necessarily rely on accuracy, since receivers are finding soft spots in defensive coverage. It does rely on quarterbacks that can quickly read a defense and know where those spots are going to be. This isn’t the strong suit of Trubisky.

This is a point that former Chicago Bear, Kyle Long was making when playing radio host alongside David Kaplan.

“It’s also unfair to criticize a guy who was drafted to play in a system that runs the hell out of the ball and showcase his arm talent in the play-action game outside the pocket.”

Long did also mention that part of Trubisky’s issue was the scheme, but it was also a byproduct of an O-Line that wasn’t up to the task.

“That’s a byproduct of personnel,” Kyle continued. “I couldn’t block. I wasn’t healthy enough, in the run game or the pass game.

“When I was healthy? When Josh Sitton was here, when we were rolling, when we were putting up 300 rushing yards of Baltimore. That’s the offense Mitch was meant to play in.”

We as fans say it all the time, hell, we scream it all the time. Set Mitch up to succeed. Play action, rollouts, bootlegs. All of it… Allow Mitch’s legs to create his plays downfield. Allow him to bootleg out and find that receiver in the second-level, grabbing chunks of yards in-between a bruising rushing attack.

This is something that Nagy doesn’t do and isn’t what the Bears brought him here to do. But it sure does seem that Trubisky was brought in to do it.

“Matt Nagy was not brought in to run the I-Formation and Mitch Trubisky potentially was brought in to run the I-formation,” Long responded to a caller.

I do think after the season, Nagy looks at the film and sees where the team could have done better. I think he can compare things they did in his first year to what they did in his second year, and write more plays into the playbook that compliment what Trubisky is good at. Jokes aside, there are a lot of things Mitch does very well as an NFL quarterback, but there are things that he doesn’t do so well. The biggest of which is his difficulties quickly reading a defense.

That in itself is a staple of the west coast offense, and Trubisky will only get better at this with more and more reps in game situations. I realize the lazy jab will be to just replace the guy, and sure, you can… but in doing so you just might see him move on to another organization and succeed. Long seems to believe Trubisky has the talent to play in this league, hell, he even suggested that he’d try to come back as a tight end to help him.

I’m going in to workout right now because I saw how important tight ends are to the offense and I love Mitch.

— kyle (@Ky1eLong) February 3, 2020

When it comes to Trubisky, I used to be a big supporter of his but now I am leaning more to the side of finding the next QB to eventually fail in Chicago. But it isn’t because I don’t think he can be a successful quarterback in this league. Sure, situations need to be better, but if he’s playing on a team with a strong line, running game, and halfway decent tight end he could be successful. I’m just not so sure it happens in Chicago.