NEWSLETTER
I, like many of you, crammed my eyeballs with Mitchell Trubisky content after yesterday’s victory over the Vikings.
Adam Hoge of NBC Sports Chicago writes that Bears Head Coach Matt Nagy has finally come to grips with Trubisky being what he is — an imperfect quarterback, but one with which a team can win on game day. His network teammate, JJ Stankevitz, writes about the Bears running it back in 2021.
Because if Chicago’s football team can parlay a late-season push into a postseason berth, then running it back in 2021 is a far more realistic option than it would’ve been just a few weeks ago. Meanwhile, The Athletic’s Adam Jahns explores the possibility of Trubisky playing himself into another year as the Bears No. 1 quarterback. There’s plenty to parse through in these pieces, and I would encourage you do read them with an open mind.
Reading these pieces took my brain to a bunch of different places. But I don’t want to fisk the pieces linked above, because that’s not the right thing to do. Nor do I want to re-litigate conversations we’ve had about the need for wholesale organizational changes that might be tougher to come by with the Bears rolling off back-to-back wins. There will come a time and place for those discussions. HOWEVA … we need to have a real discussion about how we’re framing this topic.
Because, to me, we can’t even begin to discuss this without talking about the most important corollary: If they’re really running it back in 2021, the Bears better find a way to keep Allen Robinson. And if this isn’t at the core of the Trubisky conversation, then what are we even doing?
None of this works without Robinson. Good wide receivers don’t grow on trees. And neither do good ones who run every route on the tree from every spot on the field. Yes, Darnell Mooney is emerging. David Montgomery certainly is balling out. And Cole Kmet has begun finding his niche. But Trubisky leans on Robinson harder than any of those other targets.
Robinson entered the week as the third-most targeted receiver in football. And since Trubisky’s return to the lineup, Robinson has been targeted on more than 28 percent of Trubisky’s throws. And with good reason. Trubisky has completed 27 of 38 attempts to Robinson, gaining 355 yards (9.3 yards/attempt), and posting a 126.5 rating on those throws. It’s a testament to Robinson’s excellence, to be sure. But more than that, it’s a giant neon sign declaring what this offense needs to operate at a functional level. Please do not ignore the giant flashing sign. And if you do, please acknowledge the risk you’re taking in doing so.
To be clear, Trubisky has his hand in the Bears’ offensive renaissance. But the offense’s newfound competence is due to the Bears playing complementary football. It’s an offensive line whose whole is better than the sum of its parts. A ground game that runs downhill and works with play action plays that build from what the ground game provides. It’s an aerial attack that utilizes the quarterback’s mobility, cuts the field in half, and allows for playmakers to do things in space when quick decisions are made.
All that brings me back to how the Bears better find a way to keep Robinson in the fold. Otherwise, it won’t matter who’s at quarterback.
