If there was any question regarding who runs the show when the Chicago Bears have the ball, let 6-foot-6, 317-pound right tackle Bobby Massie set the record straight:
#Bears right tackle Bobby Massie on if he senses Mitchell Trubisky’s command:
“Oh, hell yeah. Mitch will tell us, ‘Shut the f*** up’ in the huddle. Mitch has got some balls. He’s going to be a good quarterback.”
— Adam Hoge (@AdamHoge) December 10, 2017
There is a lot a quarterback can learn while wearing a ballcap and holding a clipboard on the sideline. But commanding a huddle in a 33-7 win isn’t one of them. Even if it comes with some, shall we say, choice words.
Kendall Wright, who was Mitch Trubisky’s top target with 10 catches and 107 receiving yards, came away impressed with how his quarterback played on Sunday.
“That’s why you trade up and get a quarterback like that,” Wright told reporters while standing at his locker after the game. “I think he played lights out. He’s really become a leader and he’s really coming into his own.”
Trubisky completed 25 of 32 passes (that’s a season-best 78.1% if you’re keeping score at home) for 271 yards, a passing touchdown, rushing touchdown, and 112.4 passer rating. Pro Football Focus handed him a season-best 88.6 grade, noting his impressive performance on intermediate passes (7-for-9, 114 yards) and when facing pressure (6-for-8, 74 yards) as the accuracy that eluded him just a few weeks ago has returned in each of the last two games.
Since struggling in the team’s lopsided loss to the Philadelphia Eagles in Week 12, Trubisky has completed 37 of 47 pass attempts (78.7%) for 373 yards, two touchdowns, no interceptions, and a 113.9 passer rating.
And since the bye week, Trubisky has completed 64.1 percent of his passes and has posted an 87.6 rating. That’s an improvement from the 47.5 percent completion rate and 66.2 rating he owned in his first four starts, all of which came before the Week 9 bye.
Trubisky has earned 532 snaps of on-the-job training as a rookie. It hasn’t always gone well, but Sunday’s performance against the Bengals was a major step in the right direction. He played so well on Sunday, we can totally look past the fact beating the Bengals dropped the Bears’ draft position from sixth to seventh.
But let’s be clear, Trubisky’s development takes precedent over draft position moving forward.