Piece by: Alex Cuthbert
Time and time again, the Chicago Bears have failed to get a franchise quarterback whether that be by draft or by trade. My entire life I’ve resided in the Chicago area and, as a result, a constant state of disappointment has plagued my football psyche. Not disappointment in the players, because they play hard, but the front office. Year after year they seem to make boneheaded decisions that confuse the entire sports world. And just when I think everything is going to turn around, the rug is pulled out and the Bears return to their rightful throne atop a mountain of mediocrity.
Now I won’t just drone on about how useless the Bears have been since 1985, 36 years ago for those who are counting, because they have had a few bright spots over that span. Most of these bright spots have been a result of the defense making all the right plays. The Bears organization hangs its hat on good defense and ‘smart’ football, but what had become more apparent in the years John Fox was running the team was that ‘smart’ football was, analytically speaking, bad football. Fox had the offense running on first, second, third, and fourth down; just not how winning football is played anymore. And in 2018, the Bears finally crawled into the 21st century with the rest of the NFL and hired forward thinking, offensive guru Matt Nagy.
Nagy has been a polarizing head coach throughout his tenure in Chicago, but he brought with him a sophisticated, proven system from Kansas City. Alex Smith rode this system to a career year seeing a lot of targets open down the field for easy chunk gains. But, at this point in his career, Alex Smith had been in the NFL for over a decade, gaining experience breaking down defenses and knowing where the open man will be and when to release the football. But Alex Smith was never known as a push the ball down the field kind of quarterback.
Nagy was capable of turning Alex Smith, the king of conservative football, dinking and dunking his way down the field, into a quarterback who led the league in deep passing in 2017. So, when Nagy went to the Bears in 2018, there was a lot of discussion on what the fate of good ole Mitchell Trubisky would be.
There were a lot of believers who thought Mitch Trubisky would fix his mechanics and decision making and football IQ and arm strength and he would instantly become the best quarterback the league has ever seen. Obviously that’s a bit of hyperbole, but there was definitely something in the air after the coaching hire, the trade for Kahlil Mack, and a bunch of offseason additions on offense. I remember that offseason and thinking to myself “is this the year the Bears finally figure it out?” And I was right, kind of, as the Bears rode a hungry, turnover forcing machine of a defense and a halfway competent Mitch Trubisky to a 12-4 record. However, almost every game that season, I couldn’t help but white knuckle it because Mitch Trubisky was capable of throwing it all away with one flick of that cursed wrist.
Of course, this all started in the 2017 draft when the Bears traded the farm to move up one spot ahead of a team that wasn’t going to take a quarterback just to waste it all on some mildly athletic white guy with one year of starting in college and no it factor.
Just to remind you, the next two quarterbacks taken in this draft were: Patrick Mahomes, the literal reincarnation of Brett Farve, and Deshaun Watson, an established college starter who won a national championship and showed incredible athletic ability. Now, I don’t blame the Bears for not taking Patrick Mahomes because he would likely have just been the next Jay Cutler in Chicago without being able to learn from Alex Smith and Andy Reid to cut down on his turnovers and maximize his potential. But Deshaun Watson should have been the slam dunk best quarterback in that draft considering his resume at that point, and the Bears didn’t even bother bringing him in for a workout. At the end of the day, I don’t blame Mitch Trubisky for being an awful quarterback, I blame the front office for believing that he was capable of being a franchise quarterback in the first place.
Mitch Trubisky was a flawed prospect and wasn’t capable of doing anything that a franchise quarterback should be able to do. I think this is where Matt Nagy gets a lot of his criticism from. Nagy dumbed his system down so much to accommodate Trubisky’s shortcomings that the Bears’ offense became completely unwatchable by 2019, and it didn’t even work.
He was a first read quarterback that couldn’t throw an accurate football and didn’t seem capable of fixing his mechanics. Every year the Bears would insist that Mitch spent the entire offseason working on his footwork and throwing motion to increase his accuracy, but every year he came out on the field looking like the same quarterback throwing balls in the dirt or to the other team.
I’ve heard a lot of people say that Nagy didn’t use Mitch enough in the run game, but after 2018, Nagy just started to lose trust in Mitch and his ability to make good decisions on the field regardless of whether that was with his arm or his legs. Anything that Mitch did seemed to be the opposite of what he should’ve done. And any time he did make a good decision, he threw the ball to the wrong spot. As a head coach, that must have been so frustrating, and I’m very glad that Nagy is getting another opportunity with a different quarterback to figure out this blackhole at the position.
All of Bears history since 1985 in mind, Justin Fields could be exactly what the doctor ordered. This kid is big, athletic, has a strong arm, and can straight up make plays happen. He was a highlight reel at Ohio State and he won a lot of games. The worry with guys like Fields is always going to be whether their game can translate to the NFL especially after playing at a big name school. But, in recent years, it seems like every guy is capable of having success at the next level with a lot of college schemes being implemented into the NFL. I have no doubt in Matt Nagy’s ability to build an offense around Field’s skillset and make Bears football actually fun to watch again. I don’t even need wins, I just want to be excited to watch Bears games again; and with Fields in at quarterback, that doesn’t seem so unobtainable anymore. Trading a first round pick in the move up to get Fields was a bit of a shock to me, but if he works and finally fills that hole at quarterback, I would’ve traded 5 first rounders.
There is definitely some bust potential with Fields with a couple of bad games on his resume where he looked lost against NFL style defenses. However, reports say that his work ethic is through the roof and his competitive drive is electric, so I believe in his ability to overcome this weakness and get better at the next level. Possibly the best game of Justin Fields’ career is his signature win over Clemson last season showcasing that competitive edge. Not to mention bringing Ohio State into the conversation of being one of the best college teams in history in 2019. Hell, this guy was a lock to be the number two quarterback in this class until two months ago when everyone got bored of him and wanted to praise the new kids on the block. He was willing that team to win and it’s an attitude we haven’t seen in Chicago in a very long time.
I predict there will be some growing pains as with any rookie quarterback starting from day one will go through, but I honestly see this pick as the Bears making up for not drafting Deshaun Watson in 2017. When reports came out that they had traded up to number 11 in the draft, the only thing going through my mind was Mitch Trubisky 2.0 with Mac Jones sitting there on the board. Now, obviously Mac Jones and Trubisky have wildly different skill sets and play different styles of football, but I could just see it happening: passing up on the multiple year starter with signature wins and more potential for the one year starter with no it factor. But alas, the Bears learned from their mistakes and I will be eagerly watching to see if the huge mistake the front office made in 2017 can be overwritten by Justin Fields and the new look Bears.
It seems like a bit of a pipe dream, but Justin Fields could turn this organization around and establish a winning culture in Chicago. I think this pick was one of Chicago’s few good first round picks over the last decade and has the best chance of being a great pick. Overall, I’m going to give the pick an A+ grade because he’s a quarterback and I don’t want to ride out a whole season watching Andy Dalton start. But in all seriousness, Justin Fields could be the answer in Chicago more than any quarterback I’ve seen them give a chance to for the past… ever. Even writing this article seems like a hasty and presumptive endeavor because of the Bears’ proven ability to screw up literally every roster move, but this one seems different.