Trubisky’s Focus, Cohen is a Real One, Shaheen Love, Large Bears Geeks, and Other Notes

There’s nothing like making a good dinner and not being able to fully enjoy it, because your taste buds are messed up … because you’re all stuffy … because you caught a cold. This is Day 4 of being under the weather and I’m sooooo over it.

  • Don’t let the size fool you, because you do not want to cross Bears running back Tarik Cohen:
  • Mitch Trubisky might be the most divisive quarterback in football outside of Halas Hall, but that guy is a beloved teammate within the confines. It’s good to know these guys are sticking up for each other, but it’s not a surprise. Last year, Trubisky’s teammates raved about his leadership skills during a time when he was struggling to find his footing as a rookie starter and things weren’t going well from a team standpoint. This is what it looks like when a team grows up together and I’m geeked about where it can go.
  • (Photo by David Banks/Getty Images)

  • Gene Chamberlain of the Associated Press writes that the Bears are trying to block out the noise, as their focus shifts to the stretch run and the division games that will likely decide the team’s postseason fate. As for the outside criticism aimed in his direction, it doesn’t sound like Trubisky has much time for it. “I don’t really check it that often and I don’t really have it on my phone,” Trubisky said about social media scuttlebutt. “So I don’t hear any of the outside noise, whether it be positive or negative. I just have a lot more time, and my focus is elsewhere; within football and my family and everything else I’ve got going on.”
  • Trubisky might be onto something here. A friend of mine recently deleted all social media apps from their phone and raved about how much simpler it made his life. He’ll still check in on Facebook and Twitter from time to time, but he claims things seem to have really cleared up for him since he isn’t obsessing on what was missed online.
  • This is some eye-opening stuff:
  • It’s wild to think that if Trubisky is as bad as some paint him to be, then that would make Head Coach Matt Nagy some type of wizard and GM Ryan Pace brilliant for putting pieces in place so that the guy talked about as the second coming of Blake Bortles has the Bears playing better than any Jaguars team. Man, that’s got to be a lot to digest for those people.
  • Over at NBC Sports Chicago, JJ Stankevtiz dissects Trubisky’s first half and tries to get to the bottom of the question on everyone’s mind – how good is Trubisky anyway? I think we have a ways to go before figuring out how good he is or can be, but there is a growing amount of evidence that shows he has progressed from last year and has the floor of a league-average quarterback. There are some things Trubisky can improve on, so it’s more difficult to draw a ceiling for his future than it has been to set a floor.
  • I’m holding out hope that Trubisky and draft classmate Adam Shaheen can help each other develop and reach their full potential. And judging by Twitter’s trending topics, I’m not alone:
  • New life goals: Find someone who loves me as much as #BearsTwitter loves Shaheen.
  • Once Shaheen is healthy and returns to the lineup, he’ll join an offense that is friendlier to tight ends than the one he played in last year. Here are Trubisky’s numbers when targeting tight ends: 31/36, 380 yards, 5 TD, 2 INT. That comes out to a 67.4 completion percentage, 8.3 yards per attempt, and a 110.8 passer rating.
  • It’s a quality showing by Trubisky, but it’s worth noting Trey Burton (29 catches, 371 yards, 5 TD) is doing the heavy lifting. The other tight ends (Dion Sims, Ben Braunecker) have combined to catch two of five targets for nine yards. So in case you were wondering how much the Bears offense missed Shaheen, I think the last two Bullets do a good job of underscoring his potential value to this offense.
  • No surprise here, but Bleacher Report’s Maurice Moton has Khalil Mack checking in as one of the NFL’s biggest matchup nightmares. Mack returned to practice on Wednesday and looks to be back in the lineup on Sunday against a Lions team that just allowed Matthew Stafford to get sacked 10 times last week. Giggity.
  • You can call two starting caliber NFL defensive linemen geeks at your own peril, but I won’t:
  • written by

    Luis C. Medina, who you can find on Twitter at lcm1986, has been covering the Chicago Bears at Bleacher Nation since 2017. Since then, he has written about 3 head coaches, 5 play-callers, and 11 starting quarterbacks. Previously, Luis wrote about the Cubs and MLB at BN (2015-16) and worked in the Chicago Tribune sports department (2011-16). He also co-hosted a Cubs postgame show, Outside the Ivy, in 2019.

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