It isn’t hyperbolic to say that Mitch Trubisky is playing at a historic clip.
We’re five games into the 2018 season and Trubisky is on pace to re-write the Chicago Bears’ passing record books. Trubisky is on pace to throw for 4,035 yards and throw 35 touchdowns, which is something I never expected to be writing about a Bears quarterback growing up. If Trubisky can pull it off, he would supplant Erik Kramer’s epic 1995 season in which he threw for 3,838 yards and 29 touchdowns to take his spot at the top of the charts.
And if Trubisky continues to play at this pace, he will become the first quarterback in franchise history to post a passer rating of 100 or better over the course of a full season. Let that sink in for a moment.
No Bears quarterback in the history of this proud franchise has put together a 16-game season in which they earned a quarterback rating of 100 or better. Since the NFL-AFL merger in 1966, there have been 73 quarterbacks who have had seasons in which they have reached 100 on the passer rating scale. None of them have worn Bears uniforms. It’s happened eight times in Packers history, once for Lions quarterbacks, and five times for Vikings signal callers. So what I’m saying is that it can happen, even though it hasn’t happened yet.
Should Trubisky pull it off, we’ll probably look back at the games against the Buccaneers and Dolphins as what got the ball rolling in the right direction. And as it turns out, those turned out to be historic moments in their own right:
Mitchell Trubisky is just the second @ChicagoBears QB since the AFL-NFL merger to have back-to-back games with a passer rating over 120 https://t.co/yxKjRBRrHM pic.twitter.com/MonUaepnYR
— ProFootballReference (@pfref) October 17, 2018
Trubisky has gone from flashing in moments, to series, to quarters, to games. Moving forward, he’ll need to continue to stack strong performances in order to build some good will among fans and analysts alike. Trubisky is 17 games into his NFL career and is starting to look like a quarterback worthy of being a first-round selection. But the best could still be yet to come as his development continues, and that should have you excited.