NEWSLETTER
It’s worth keeping an eye on where Chicago’s football scouts are heading during the college football season.
And after watching young quarterbacks like Kyler Murray, Tua Tagovailoa, Justin Herbert, and Josh Allen (among others) ball out on Sunday, I can’t help but hope the Bears are out there looking for a gunslinger of their own while perusing the college landscape.
In that vein, it’s noteworthy that Jordan Reid, a Senior NFL Draft Analyst for The Draft Network, listed the Bears as among the teams who were in attendance for Florida’s game against Arkansas on Saturday. Because what they saw was Kyle Trask’s coming out party.
Trask completed 23 of 29 passes for 356 yards and 6 touchdowns in Florida’s against Arkansas. That comes out to a 97.6 QBR on ESPN’s scale and translates to 157.4 on the NFL’s passer rating calculator. But no matter how you add it up, what you get in the end is a player who threw his hat in the ring for Heisman Trophy consideration.
And more than that, Trask continued to build his case to be a first-round pick in next year’s draft:
Kyle Trask with a casual 6 TD night
— PFF College (@PFF_College) November 15, 2020
Trask didn’t make the cut for our recent discussion of top-5 draft-eligible quarterbacks for 2021. But he is threatening to break through with performances such as the one he had last night. And at this rate, he’ll make a compelling case for Heisman Trophy candidacy while he’s at it. The 6-5, 240-pound senior has thrown for 2,171 yards, 28 touchdowns, and just three interceptions. It’s impressive stuff, to be sure. And at minimum, we need to keep eyes on him as his stock rises. The more first-round quarterbacks there are, the better it will be for the Bears in one way or another.
And yet, I can’t bring myself to be there on Trask just yet. Don’t get me wrong. Game recognize game. I see what Trask is doing to SEC defenses and I tip my cap. But I’m not seeing the Joe Burrow stuff that others are right now. This isn’t to say it can’t happen, but that’s such a rare feat for anyone to accomplish. Admittedly, some of my reluctance in embracing the Trask train is rooted in being hurt by Florida quarterbacks for longer than Trask has been alive. Shane Matthews, Danny Wuerffel, Rex Grossman, and others live in my memory, so excuse me if I don’t want to be hurt again.
Even still … I’m intrigued. Any and all quarterback prospects will get the deep dive treatment from us at some point.
We’ve long established the Bears weren’t going to be bad enough to land Trevor Lawrence or Justin Fields with one of the first two picks in the 2021 NFL Draft. But that hasn’t stopped us from dipping our toes in the prospect market. In fact, I’m more aware of this class’ depth because of Trask’s emergence. And with Trask joining the group, it’s deeper today than it was before yesterday.
