Is Fantasy Reality When It Comes to Mitch Trubisky? And Other Bullets

I haven’t been going out as often as I have in past winters, because I’m trying to keep a low profile to save some funds for my upcoming trip to Las Vegas.

But I couldn’t decline an invitation to catch up with a friend to watch Duke-North Carolina and check out Zion Williamson in a high-profile game. Unfortunately … Williamson was injured less than a minute into the game. Ruh, roh.

Here’s some Bears stuff.

• Fantasy football stats don’t often vibe with the reality of what’s happening in real games. But in the case of this Mitch Trubisky graphic, there is something that stands out:

Mitchell Trubisky was the No. 2 fantasy quarterback in the first quarter. He was the No. 27 fantasy quarterback in the fourth quarter. pic.twitter.com/otf0lliFZc

— PFF Fantasy Football (@PFF_Fantasy) February 19, 2019

• To be fair, teaming Trubisky’s solid starts and a suffocating defense put the Bears in a position where they were nursing late leads. If your team is trying to salt away games in the fourth quarter, odds are your quarterback isn’t going to be racking up points. As it turns out, Trubisky attempted just 88 passes in the fourth quarter this season, which is 27 fewer than that average number of attempts in the first three quarters. Trubisky still completed 65 percent of his throws, posted a 95.7 passer rating, and limited his turnovers (2.3 INT%). So it’s not like his fourth quarter stats are some sort of harbinger of doom. They’re just something worth noting for the time being.
• But still … Trubisky being the No. 2 fantasy quarterback in the first quarter and No. 27 in the fourth speaks to at least some variance in his game, doesn’t it? There are times where Trubisky looks the part of the franchise quarterback Bears fans have been dreaming of since forever. Then there are moments when your palm meets your forehead because of disbelief. I won’t put too much stock in fantasy numbers as it relates to who Trubisky is or what he can be, but they provide a different (and lighter) angle in which to discuss Trubisky’s search for consistency.
• Or maybe I’m just sharing these fourth-quarter fantasy stats in order to drive down his draft stock so he can score all the points for my team in 2019! 😈
• As for Trubisky’s former backup, this is something that slipped my mind:

One thing I haven't seen either cap site notate yet is the $2.5M cap credit the #Bears will receive from Mike Glennon's offset language last year when he signed with Arizona.

So if you're going off of OTC's $7.3M figure at $190M, add $8.5M w/ the credit & Sims cut.

— Aaron Leming (@AaronLemingNFL) February 20, 2019

• More cap space! Hooray!
• So what are the Bears to do with all that extra spending money? Bleacher Report’s Gary Davenport believes Chargers safety Adrian Phillips is the ideal free agent target for the Bears this offseason. If the Bears don’t retain Adrian Amos, they’ll need to search elsewhere for a replacement and will probably have to do so while operating under a tight budget. Phillips is coming off a career year in 2018, earning Pro Bowl and first-team All-Pro honors after a 94-tackle season in which he added an interception, forced fumble, nine passes defended, and four tackles-for-loss. That’s not too shabby. Depending on how the Amos situation shakes out, perhaps Phillips is someone we’ll keep an eye on moving forward.
• We spent a healthy amount of time talking about running backs (both internal and external options) yesterday. And while Le’Veon Bell brings a shiny new thing factor that everyone loves, I found myself nodding in agreement while reading this piece from Mark Talarico at the Chicago Audible suggesting that Jordan Howard should be given an opportunity to prove himself in a contract year. The Bears didn’t get the most out of Howard in 2018, but we didn’t see Howard at his best until the second half of the season. Perhaps Howard will show he has another gear inside of him now that he has a year of experience in this offense.
• And yet, I can’t shake the idea that there is a missing piece to this puzzle and that it could possibly be had in the upcoming NFL Draft.
• That’s neat:

Matt Nagy’s 12 wins were most by a first-year coach in Bears history and more than any of the NFL’s other 31 current coaches in their first seasons. He also became first coach to lead Bears to a winning record and a postseason berth in his first year since Paddy Driscoll in 1956.

— Larry Mayer (@LarryMayer) February 20, 2019

• Ryan Pace knew Matt Nagy had it in him all along! “We knew very quickly that he was going to be a special head coach,” Pace said, via Larry Mayer of the Bears’ official website. “It’s weird to say, but I’m not really surprised by the success that he’s had or the type of head coach that he is because you could visualize it just meeting him and doing research on him.”
• An Amazon deal on TVs with Fire built in got me looking at TVs in general. It is crazy how much cheaper they are than even just a couple years ago when I last bought a TV. Does any other product category move this quickly in its prices?