The moment it became officially official:
The Chicago Bears shocked the football world when they traded up in the draft to receive the rights to select North Carolina quarterback Mitchell Trubisky. First-year 49ers general manager John Lynch pulled off a coup with his acquisition of three Bears picks (3, 67, 111) in this draft, along with a third-round pick in the 2018 draft. It was the first of three trades in which a team moved up in the draft to take a quarterback. The Kansas City Chiefs traded up from the 27th pick to take Texas Tech’s Patrick Mahomes with the 10th selection, and the Houston Texans made a deal with the Cleveland Browns to move up from 25 to select Clemson’s Deshaun Watson with the 12th pick.
GM Ryan Pace and the Bears, by contrast, moved up just slightly to go all-in on Trubisky …
At some point, I expected “Why?” to be a trending topic, because of the shocking nature of the Bears’ draft day deal to acquire Trubisky. Over at FOX Sports, Dieter Kurtenbach believes the lopsided deal makes perfect sense for a Bears team that has long been searching for a franchise quarterback, and believes it has one in Trubisky. In a league where a team needs a top flight quarterback to win, the cost of acquisition – in this case, two third-round picks and a fourth-rounder – is worth the price of admission to land a player the Bears clearly believe is a game-changer at the position.
And yes, the Bears dealt with the 49ers to make the move. That’s the one-on-one that goes down in the transaction wire for bookkeeping purposes. But the Bears were also dealing with fighting other teams trying to move up with the 49ers. Two other teams traded up in the draft to get quarterbacks. There’s also this, from the Chicago Sun-Times’ Adam Jahns:
There is a lot that we don’t know about this process. But what we do know is that two other teams traded to move up in the draft to pick quarterbacks in the top 12. The Chiefs were one of those teams who were rumored to want Trubisky, and still moved up to take the second quarterback on their board. A third team that sought Trubisky, the Browns, traded out of the 12th pick when Trubisky and Patrick Mahomes – two of the top quarterbacks available – were off the board. The Bears made a risky move, no doubt. But they made the first one, beating several other teams to the punch in doing so.
Brad Biggs of the Chicago Tribune called the Trubisky the boldest draft day move Bears have made in at least 20 years. Trubisky became the first quarterback chosen by the Bears in the first round since the team chose Rex Grossman (22nd overall) in 2003. It’s a move that puts the Bears in a good position moving forward. Glennon is the starter now, but Trubisky is the quarterback of the future. If Glennon flames out, then Trubisky slides in. If Trubisky doesn’t pan out, then the team will move on to the next option. For teams that don’t have settled quarterback situations, the best way about fixing it is drafting one until the most important position in professional sports is settled. Pace had already passed the buck on drafting a quarterback twice in favor of holding on to Jay Cutler. Pace came to the conclusion he could no longer pass on this important position. Simply put, you can’t make shots if you’re constantly passing. The Bears took their shot on Thursday, one they haven’t even looked to attempt in a long time.
It’s the boldest move in what might be the riskiest first round we’ve ever seen.
Over at CBS Chicago, Chris Emma offers up why the Bears made their bet on Trubisky, a quarterback with only 13 college starts to his name. The Bears aggressively attacked the quarterback position with some outside-the-box thinking. The worst case scenario – in which the Bears have a quarterback controversy in 2017 or 2018 – isn’t a bad one. If Glennon beats out Trubisky this summer, it allows the Bears’ rookie to learn without the pressure of having to be The Man right away, something that has fell quarterback-of-the-future types before. But if Trubisky proves he can play early, the cost is minimal to the Bears who can dump Glennon after only spending approximately $18 million in guarantees. And it’s not as if the Bears were strapped for cash after entering free agency with a significant amount of cap room. And the team isn’t tied to any long-term free agent deals, as only cornerback Marcus Cooper and safety Quintin Demps – along with Glennon – were the only signees who garnered more than two years on their respective deals.
All things considered, Trubisky was worth a gamble – especially if he turns out to be good. And he might be. Over at The Ringer, Rodger Sherman underlines that very thought. Perhaps Trubisky becomes a good quarterback, someone who can be productive and hold on to the job and put up respectable numbers at a position where Jay Cutler currently stands as the franchise’s top statistical performer. The deal to acquire Trubisky leaves much to be desired, especially if San Francisco simply just tricked the Bears into making a move for a player they weren’t going to draft and for a pick they weren’t going to trade. However, the two concepts aren’t mutually exclusive. It’s very well possible that the Bears made the right move to acquire the quarterback they wanted and pay too high of a price in the process. But if Trubisky turns out to be good, then what happens?
This is my favorite Trubisky highlight:
And it’s not just because of the throws he makes, but also because it circles one of the hurdles talent evaluators have to clear when scouting a quarterback. There is so much that goes into a quarterback being successful that is entirely out of his control. Offensive linemen need to block. So do running backs and tight ends. Receivers need to be good route runners with soft hands. As do running backs and tight ends. Quarterback is the most important position on the field, it’s also the most dependent, too.
This might be as positive of a review as you’ll see:
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