Insider Reveals The Key Moment Mitch Trubisky Won Over Matt Nagy

Matt Nagy understands people are skeptical about the decision to go with Mitch Trubisky as the starter. He saw what happened in 2019 too. They have no reason to trust the embattled Chicago Bears QB can rebound. At the same time, he promised from the start of this offseason that the competition between him and Nick Foles would be fair. No favoritism either way. He even made sure to remind his assistant coaches of that.

In the end? Trubisky won the job.

It was certainly close. Foles gave it a great run but it was less about him not performing and more about Trubisky showing improvement. So that begs the question. Was there a particular moment during the process that swung things in his favor? Albert Breer of The MMQB spoke to Nagy about how things went down. What really stood out wasn't necessarily the throws on the field.

More it was how Trubisky was able to handle being challenged.

"Through all that, Nagy said, he saw a distinct toughness from Trubisky in how he competed for the job. As Nagy pointed out, neither being knocked around in the media, nor being compared to draft classmates Deshaun Watson and Patrick Mahomes, nor having a potential replacement traded for or that option declined in May seemed to weigh on him...

...And slowly, the coaches saw Trubisky start to check those boxes. His footwork was better. He had more poise within the pocket. He was going deeper into his progressions. He was leading naturally, in his own way, and managing bad moments by responding with good ones. Now, it was close enough to where, when Nagy called those three assistant coaches together one final time, he wasn’t sure where the meeting would go.

But what he did know was that Trubisky had already answered the bell."

Mitch Trubisky passed the first test but the hard part remains

People dump on Trubisky a lot. The truth is nobody can say the kid isn't working his tail off to be great. Playing quarterback in the NFL is hard enough. Playing it for a top tier franchise with a history of QB misery after being drafted ahead of two All-Pros makes it even harder. Odds are many other guys in that position would've folded under the pressure. Understandably so.

Trubisky, to his credit, didn't. He buckled down and took the challenge head-on. Whether people want to admit or not, he did improve. His 2019 training camp was known for often being a sloppy mess. Lots of turnovers and mistakes. This time around, while there were still head-scratching moments, he appeared much sharper and more focused than before.

Whether any of that matters remains to be seen. Trubisky has to show it in actual games. That is the hurdle he hasn't cleared. The next month will be the most defining of his football career.