Chicago Bears quarterback Mitchell Trubisky argued strongly about why he should be the last player to have his fifth year option turned down, just to profit from that decision.
In the eyes of some NFL executives, Trubisky recently played one of the best football games of his career, arguing why Chicago needs to consider him again.
Trubisky’s chances of returning to Chicago next season would be even greater if the Bears (7-7) could win their final two games of the regular season and secure a playoff spot.
Trubisky and Bears coach Matt Nagy set a record of 24-12 in games in which Trubisky started, just as he will on Sunday against the Jacksonville Jaguars. The Bears are 3-7 below Nagy in games Trubisky has not yet started.
Trubisky’s performance and record now left some in the Bears organization wondering what could have happened this season if overall choice 2 of 2017 had not been eliminated when Bears was 3-0.
Chicago are 2-5 this season, with Nick Foles as a starting defender, averaging just 17 points in those games.
But since Trubisky was reinstated as a full-back, the attack has averaged 31 points in the last four games – and Chicago is back in the playoffs. The Bears, who control their own destiny thanks to the Cardinals losing Saturday to the 49ers, visit the Jaguars on Sunday before ending the season at home against rival Packers.
An NFL executive told ESPN this week that, with the way Trubisky has been playing down, Chicago will now have to consider bringing him back – a possibility that seemed hard to imagine after he was eliminated this season.
Trubisky’s chances of staying in Chicago for a long term also seemed slim after the Bears turned down his fifth-year option last May – two months after they acquired Foles in a deal with Jacksonville.
But Trubisky is having a strong end to the season, joining Titans receiver Corey Davis as the first-round pick of 2017 to have his fifth-year option narrowed and then thrive in 2020.
Chicago’s move towards more game passes at the end of the season seems to have made a difference for the 26-year-old quarterback, who used his young creators like Darnell Mooney, Cole Kmet, Anthony Miller, David Montgomery and Allen Robinson. Trubisky completed 68% of his passes with eight touchdowns and just three interceptions in Chicago’s last four games.
The prolonged effort impressed some league executives, but one person pointed out that Trubisky’s recent success is not all that new.
In the past three years, Trubisky’s winning percentage (66.7%) is better than those posted by several other first-round quarterbacks during the 2-4 year period, such as Carson Wentz (62.5%), Deshaun Watson (55.6%), Baker Mayfield (53.3%) and Ryan Tannehill (45.8%).