Chase Daniel Detailed Where Mitch Trubisky Improved the Most

The Chicago Bears haven't gone into much detail regarding where Mitch Trubisky has improved the most. They've offered vague answers about him "seeing" things better and "processing" faster. Yet that doesn't really cover the initial question. Are there any specifics at all? Thankfully yes. The man who ended up providing them was his backup Chase Daniel. Few have a better inside knowledge of this offense under Matt Nagy.

More than that, Daniel is a longtime NFL veteran. He understands some of the keys that separate the good quarterbacks from the bad one. According to Sean Hammond of Pro Football Weekly, a big key lay in pre-snap reads. Being able to identify what the defenses are doing, what they're disguising. Will they blitz? Will they drop extra men in coverage? This will tell the quarterback if he has to audible the play or adjust protections.

It is here that Daniel has noticed Trubisky's greatest growth.

For Daniel, Trubisky’s progress is most impressive not in the classroom, but on the practice field. Daniel said Trubisky is identifying where the pressure is coming from and calling the right protection far more accurately than he did a year ago.

“Pretty much all the time,” Daniel said.

Last year, according to Daniel, it was more like 50 percent of the time.

“To be honest, he wasn’t really thinking about protections too much because we didn’t want him to think about protections too much,” Daniel said. “To see him going up there and taking accountability of it, and taking the power to go up there and do that, it’s cool.”

Chase Daniel saw that growth throughout 2018

Care for an idea of how much he improved over the course of last season? In the first eight games, Trubisky was sacked 17 times. Over the final seven including the playoff game against Philadelphia? That number dropped to just nine. It became clear he was better at knowing where the rush was coming from and making sure he had counters in place to deal with it. This would explain why his playing efficiency made a noticeable spike down the stretch.

Now that he's had another full offseason to hone his craft, it's easy to understand why Daniel and others are so excited about this year. Trubisky's mind is catching up to the speed of the game. Once that happens for a quarterback, their effectiveness on the field can go through the roof. The Bears QB is focused, confident, and much more certain of what he's trying to accomplish from one snap to the next.

Sacking him was hard enough due to his mobility. It will be even harder if he's directing protections like a top tier pro.