Mitch Trubisky Didn't Follow Advice He Got From Ben Roethlisberger

It's amazing how looking back to the beginning can offer so much insight. Mitch Trubisky came into the NFL with so much promise. He was arguably the most talented quarterback of his draft class. When the Chicago Bears took him #2 overall, it was felt that he could deliver where others had not. There were early signs of that promise. Then he came out strong in 2018 and got the team to the playoffs, making the Pro Bowl as an alternate. There was a genuine belief that he was on the cusp of realizing his potential.

Then somewhere along the way, he seemed to get lost. Trubisky looks nothing like the player he was at the end of last season. His confidence. His swagger. It's gone. Everything that comes out of his mouth these days seems measured and the words don't feel like his own. The Bears have exerted a tighter grip on what he can or can't talk about. Head coach Matt Nagy has tried to accelerate his development as a passer. Yet in doing all this it seems to have erased who he is. He's trying so hard to be what the team wants him to be rather than being himself.

In doing so, he's put his career in jeopardy. The irony in all of this is Trubisky was warned something like this could happen. Way back in the spring of 2017, he had a chance to speak with some great quarterbacks in Peyton Manning and Andrew Luck. However, the man himself said the best advice he got came from Pittsburgh Steelers legend Ben Roethlisberger.

It was simple but carried a vital key to what makes good quarterbacks.

“One of the big pieces of advice he gave me was, really, take control of your career,” Trubisky said Friday. “And I think that’s kind of how he instills how he carries himself in the locker room, on the practice field, at the line of scrimmage. The play is going to go how he wants it, and that’s really how I want my career to go. Just exactly what you dream of and take control and get everyone to buy into the same plan.

“I think that’s how you create a winning culture — really taking control, really taking ownership, and hopefully that trickles down through the rest of the team.”

Mitch Trubisky is letting others take control of his career

When hearing that advice again two years later, it speaks perfectly to the situation. Trubisky has lost control of his career. His good soldier-type attitude, while making him extremely coachable and a well-liked teammate, has also come back to haunt him. Last season he looked like a player who was in control. He ran plays the coaches wanted, but when things weren't going well, he began to improvise. He'd take off and run. Try to make things happen.

Trubisky even admitted a few weeks ago that coaches have urged him to be a passer first. To stay in the pocket if possible and don't run unless he has to. While that's not bad advice, the quarterback has taken it way too literally. He's stopped running altogether and his improvisational skill has vanished. He doesn't attack down the field for fear of throwing interceptions. Nothing about his play feels like the real Trubisky. It feels like player trying to be something the coaches want him to be.

Roethlisberger knew something like that would happen because it's almost certain the Steelers did the same thing. He was trying to warn the Bears QB of what was coming. Somewhere along the way, Trubisky seems to have forgotten those valuable words.