It's easy to understand why football fans want to believe in a quarterback who was selected with a high first-round pick, who has a likable personality and who by all accounts has the necessary work ethic to become a successful pro. That's who Mitch Trubisky is, and that's why Bears fans are forcing themselves to believe that 2020 can be different than his massive letdown last season. They're keeping the faith, hoping for a turnaround when there's no evidence to suggest one's coming.
Bears fans rally around a simple war cry. It was the playcalling! The offensive line! The wide receivers running the wrong routes! Translation: it was everything but Mitch.
Sounds crazy, right?
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That's because it is. Trubisky hasn't produced enough positive plays in his three seasons as a starter to deserve the benefit of the doubt. In fact, he should be considered the source of any doubt that surrounds this team's upside in 2020.
But back to those pesky fans. They want to believe, and that belief will last until Trubisky's final snap as the Bears starter, whenever that might come.
Social media is a great place to go to get outside the bubble of Bears fandom and gather a better sense of what the national opinion of a player is. In the case of Trubisky, that opinion isn't a positive one, as proven in a poll posted by Evan Silva, a nationally respected fantasy football writer.
Silva posed a simple question:
NFL
You are GM of an NFL franchise. You have no access to Patrick Mahomes, any actually good quarterback, or any fountain of rookie hope. These are your only 3 available building-block QB options and you must pick from them & them only: Mitch Trubisky, Taysom Hill or Jameis Winston?
The results are pretty astonishing, even for those of us who've deboarded the Trubisky train. More than 73% of the 23,000 votes favored Winston. Then came Hill, with over 17% of the votes. Bringing up the rear was Trubisky, who was hovering around 10%.
What does all this mean? First, it goes to show how little respect Trubisky has from football fans as a viable starter in 2020. Second, it may be time to consider Winston a legitimate option as a replacement. His upside is worth the risk of his turnover downside. And finally, let's get real with what went wrong in 2019.
Trubisky wasn't good. It's just that simple. He missed basic, routine throws and many of his completions went for fewer yards than they should've because of poor ball placement. Was he banged up? Sure. But that's also becoming a trend for a player who needs to be consistently available in the starting lineup if he wants to be consistently great.
It's hard to admit this, right? It isn't easy to say the franchise quarterback is anything but that right now. No one wants to give up on a player who's supposed to be the face of the franchise. It's painful, and that pain stings even more when considering who Ryan Pace could've drafted in 2017 instead of Trubisky.
The sooner Chicago moves on from Mitch, the sooner that wound will heal. It sounds insane, but it's true. The best medicine for a mistake as massive as the Trubisky pick is the strength and courage it takes to admit it.
Pace doesn't need to get behind a microphone and vomit apologies to Bears fans for picking the wrong guy. All he has to do is sign the right guy in free agency to replace Trubisky in 2020. If he does, then he can keep swinging on quarterback prospects in the draft until he gets it right.
Bears fans will forgive him. They'll move on. But they can't move on until the team moves on, and that takes courage. We'll soon find out if this front office has any.
