Pros and Cons of Trubisky

As far back as January I posted that if the Bears were to draft a top QB in 2017 Trubisky would be my choice because he seemed to be the best fit for a pro offense in Chicago.  He has the needed arm strength, the accuracy, and the mobility to at least survive playing in the conditions he'll face here and under some of the handicaps all Bears QBs seem to face.  IMHO that hasn't changed either.   We have a bad habit of drafting or trading for QBs before we have a team and coaching to assure their success.  It's somewhat like inviting the boss over for dinner before deciding what to serve and how to prepare it not to mention lacking the basic ingredients to even do it.

But survive is not the same as thrive and even though I had my doubts, as do many others, that he was worth a #3 overall pick it's even more doubtful he's worth what the Bears gave up to draft him.  The Bears are a team badly in need of young talent all across their roster and we just gave up three potential players who might have helped.  Of course Trubisky may change my mind eventually but this AM it sure looks to me like Ryan Pace got smoked by a rookie GM in John Lynch who not only got the guy he wanted all along but he also picked up three very valuable mid round picks for his rebuilding team while Pace is out those three picks.  Of course that could change somewhat today but it still would leave him scrambling to do it and that often leads to even more mistakes.  Was this really the best time to step out and take these risks?

After a lack luster FA I'm one who believes we gave up two badly needed 2017 picks in a very deep draft at positions like CB, S, and TE where we need to add young talent.  I don't know of many who rated the Bears 2017 FA to be a huge success and most seem to feel we paid dearly for the right to draft an at least somewhat unproven college passer when higher ranked players whom they also had a need for like Thomas or Adams would have there for the taking.  I include Thomas because SF obviously wanted to trade their pick in exchange for whoever wanted Trubisky and we jumped highest.  If we lost out then Thomas falls to us at #3 and he was an infinitely safer pick.  Pace keeps telling us that's his approach but in his three drafts I see just the opposite.

The article posted seems to be a fair evaluation but it doesn't cover the points I'd like to make so I'll do that.

1) Just days ago Ryan Pace reaffirmed his plan to stick with his BPA approach again this year and that there were three players they liked at #3.  I think Thomas and Adams were two of them but I would not have believed Trubisky was the third.  Even if this was so Pace violated his own standards by not only selecting the lowest ranked of the three but he also gave up valuable draft capital do it.  Today it's pretty tough to give him a high grade on this move and most have not.  It looks more like a desperation move than a savvy one.

2) This is not Pace's only flip flop either.  When he signed Glennon, much to the disappointment of many, he made it very clear that he saw him as more than simply a "bridge QB" and indicated he felt he had the potential to become a long term starter for the Bears.  Was that simply his way of ducking the criticism he was getting for apparently bidding against himself to sign Glennon to a deal that guaranteed him $19.5 mil when all TB was offering was $8 mil and there were few if any other suitors?  Whatever the case he just made Mike Glennon a future backup to yet another highly drafted college QB for the second time in his career.  That can't be making Mike Glennon very happy this AM.  Hopefully he didn't sign any long term leases or buy a home in Chicago.

3) So that's two deceptions on Pace's part so far or should I call them "alternative facts"? Now the third mistake I see is this.  Pace commented at his presser that we have the perfect environment in which to develop a young QB like Trubisky.  WTF!!  This one really blows me away.  John Fox doesn't like rookie QBs ergo the reason we've already spent $20.5 mil in guarantees on Glennon and Sanchez and Pace emphasized that Glennon "will be the starter in 2017".  So what do we do with Trubisky and his roughly $30 mil of guaranteed money?  Unless we send Sanchez packing where will Trubisky get all of the reps he needs to develop into a 2018 starter and further more whose gonna do it, Dowell Loggains or John Fox?  Without a doubt Sanchez now needs to go but will he?

4) Hopefully Pace isn't wrong and Trubisky will turn out to be that franchise guy we're lacking but I still can't help but feeling we jumped one year too early.  This team isn't ready for him yet.  Not in terms of player personnel and certainly not in terms of coaching.  Some will say we had to do it because a team needs a very high #1 or #2 overall pick to get a top college QB in the draft.  Pace said this himself.  To a degree that's true but today it still comes across as a major rationalization for this move and he was actually quite defensive about it during his presser.  One look at our schedule, the fact the Fox is still HC and Loggains his OC ,and that we have a team still lacking in enough top shelf talent to compete at a higher level and a 2017 finish that still leaves us drafting in the top ten in 2018 is very likely.  If we could trade up this year we could have done it next year as well.

5) Again, I hope I'm wrong because above all I do like Trubisky but still feel the risk was too great when there were far safer picks we could have made, drafted a QB in a later round, and looked to 2018 when there will also be some top young QBs entering the draft and the possibility of UFAs like Garoppolo and AJ McCarren as well.  Some are calling this a "bold move".  I'm calling it foolish and very risky.  Pace gave us all his criteria for drafting a QB this high and the section of Trubisky violated nearly every one of them.  So how does he justify this along with the picks he gave up to do it?  Either he has prescient vision or he's gonna be looking for a new job in another two years and it won't be a GM position.  I'd like to say I admire his balls but I can't.  I think this was a very foolish move that smacks of the same type of desperation move we've seen other bottom feeders make for years that has come to bite them in the ass.


So this is how the Bears begin their post Cutler era.  I'm not debating whether or not that needed to be done.  It did, and John Fox made certain of that last fall when he created a needless QB controversy which along with Cutler's injury made any possibility of a trade impossible.  But to me this smacks of the same type of throwing QBs against the wall to see if one sticks that Cleveland has employed it seems like forever.  The Bears still look like a team that's out of step and one who doesn't quite know what they're doing.  I would dare anyone to say this is what they imagined as a rebuilding process and it's results when it all began two years ago with the hiring of Pace and Fox.  In my mind this is what you get when you hire the wrong HC with poor personnel management skills and pair him with a very inexperienced GM.  In addition the lack of a top level exec with the proper experience to oversee and guide this process looms even larger now than it ever has before.  This is the McCaskey's folly in that they believe no one can do it better than them and it's hurting this team big time.

And just think he is not only the Bears #1 pick in the draft he is also the #1 pick on the bust meter

Oh no, not on the bust meter!!

I wonder how she would grade?