Mitch Trubisky is off to probably the best start in any of his four training camps as a Chicago Bear. Reviews from the media seem to indicate he has looked like the more accurate quarterback than Nick Foles. He completes more passes and just seems to make more plays off the cuff as well. No surprise given his obvious advantage in mobility.
However, there could be a hidden reasoning behind this.
Adam Hoge of NBC Sports hinted at it during his recent practice recap. When talking about Trubisky, he mentioned how clean of a practice the 26-year old had. Almost no errant throws with mostly good decisions. Then again, it's easy to do that when playing it safe.
"The degree of difficulty was limited – we didn’t really see any bombs downfield – but Trubisky had another solid day of practice. Taking out the blunder at the end of Thursday’s practice, his accuracy has been very good the last two days and he has yet to throw an interception in camp (although he had one dropped on Monday)."
This has been in stark contrast to Foles. While his completion rate is lower and he's had more near-interceptions, there is a clear reason as to why.
"For the second straight day, Foles did not match Trubisky’s accuracy in 7-on-7s, but he also appeared to be attempting tougher throws. Two downfield shots to rookie Darnell Mooney fell incomplete, while Foles was able to hook up with Robinson on a good ball to the right side. Later, he threw a really nice ball to Javon Wims downfield with pressure in his face."
Mitch Trubisky still hasn't shaken his passivity from last year
Anybody with a decent memory won't like hearing this. One of the most persistent issues from last season with Trubisky was his constant unwillingness to throw the ball downfield. The number of times he settled for a check-down with a receiver who was running open deep was way too high. All told, he attempted 46 throws of 20 yards or more last season. That ranked him 17th in the league.
The year before? He had 64, which was good for 3rd.
Somewhere along the way, Trubisky became gun shy. By the sounds of things, he still hasn't shaken that mentality. He works the short-to-intermediate range in practice. That may lead to plenty of completions. At the same time, defenses inevitably figure out how to defend that. Simply drop more players within 10 yards of the line of scrimmage. This is what happened last year and Trubisky never figured it out.
What's to stop them from doing it again? Until he learns how to embrace the deep ball again, the reality is clear. Trubisky may ride this strategy to winning the job. It won't help him keep it though.
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