Mitch Trubisky made real, tangible growth in 2018, improving on his completion percentage and increasing his touchdown percentage, yards per attempt, and passer rating in his second season as a pro. The step up in production was undeniable, but Matt Nagy wants more from QB1 in Year 2 playing in his system.
And it’s not just another step forward in the development of a young quarterback in the NFL that Nagy wants, as he believes there’s legitimate superstar potential within Trubisky that hasn’t been shown just yet. Good news is that Nagy has an idea on how to get it out of him.
Nagy explained to The Athletic’s Dan Durkin there will be a focus on “off-schedule” throws. If Nagy can coach Trubisky into cutting out mistakes made when things went off script, then we could be on the brink of something special.
“We gotta eliminate those,” Nagy said. “And there’s others where they might have been somebody that was open that he overthrew. We gotta eliminate those. We wanna hit those. Don’t fool yourself, that is not the only quarterback that is missing those throws. That’s why he has the magnifying glass in our city because it is him, but that goes on throughout the league. To make him a superstar, we gotta have him always hitting those.”
Superstar-level quarterbacking? Oh, be still my beating heart.
We’ve seen Nagy coax greatness out of Trubisky before, so why not again?
Timing is everything in football, but Nagy estimates that 70 percent of throws happen when things aren’t perfect. Because even when you have everything called correctly and lined up properly, it can all change as soon as the ball is snapped. And while we have seen Trubisky make some big plays while on the move after things break down in the pocket, across-the-body throws, ill-advised passes, and inaccurate tosses still popped up too often. Nagy knows it and he is ready to combat it on a practice field.
To be clear, it’s not going to happen right away. Even though the Bears are back at Halas Hall, this phase of the offseason training program is solely focused on strength and conditioning. Player-position drills aren’t in the cards right now, but it won’t be long before Trubisky is under center and working on ironing out those
Durkin’s piece at The Athletic dives deeper into what Nagy wants to get from Trubisky moving forward and what he liked about Trubisky’s season. The stuff Nagy raves about seeing from Trubisky in the playoff game gave me goosebumps. Nothing like some positive reviews stemming from a clutch, late-game performance to get the ticker going and get yours truly itching for football season to come. You’ll want to give it a read.
No matter where a player is picked in the draft, superstar status is guaranteed to no one. But that Nagy believes Trubisky has something more within him that could elevate his status has me pumped about what’s coming down the pipeline.