Okay look. It's fair to say not everybody is a Mitch Trubisky lover. He wasn't the unanimous best quarterback for experts going into the NFL draft. Many liked Deshaun Watson. Others liked Patrick Mahomes. That's completely normal. A lot of drafts can have divides on who the best QB is. At the same time those people usually have logical reasons for their choices.
People liked Watson because he was a proven winner. The man who knocked off mighty Alabama in the national championship. They liked Patrick Mahomes because he was a certified gunslinger, a kid who could make throws maybe two or three other people on the planet are capable of. As for Trubisky, they loved his accuracy and his tireless drive to improve.
Conversely there were reasons to dislike those players as well. One beat writer coming out of Carolina announced himself as a Trubisky critic. That's fine. He's entitled to that opinion. However, the reasoning he gave for said opinion? Well let's just say it's awful.
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Mitch Trubisky hater has only one reason for stance and it's weak
Scott Fowler has covered the Carolina Panthers since their inception in 1995. He's been an award-winning journalist with the Charlotte Observer since 1994. This is said so everybody is clear that the man himself is not some second-rate dunderhead. Fowler is supposed to know what he's talking about.
He believes that Trubisky is destined to be nothing more than an average quarterback. Fine. What are his reasons for that? He has to have a few right? Turns out, not so much. It boils down to
one sticking point with him.
"My reasoning on Trubisky is not based on his decent athleticism or his fantastic arm. It’s based on the most important statistic – the fact he didn’t win enough in his one year as North Carolina’s starter.
Remember, Trubisky ran an absolutely loaded offense in Chapel Hill – far different from this year’s UNC team. Yet in his final four games, he lost to Duke (3-6 at the time), N.C. State (5-6 at the time) and Stanford (without Christian McCaffrey, who skipped the bowl game to avoid possible injury). UNC finished 8-5 in a season in which the Tar Heels had the talent to go at least 10-3."
Wow. Where to begin with that? He does remember that it was the first year Mitch was starting right? This is a guy who didn't play much at all through freshman and sophomore seasons. Then he came in his first year as starter, went 8-5 at a school known more for their basketball while throwing 30 touchdowns to six interceptions. He also doesn't note that the Tarheels were giving up more points defensively in 2016 compared to the year before (24.9 to 22.6).
A "loaded roster" might be a bit of an overstatement
Moving on we should address this loaded roster he speaks of. Let's use Deshaun Watson for comparison purposes. Watson is the golden child in his eyes. Besides himself there were five other members of the 2016 Clemson team who got drafted. Three of them were on offense including receiver Mike Williams who actually went before Watson in the first round.
He along with Cordrea Tankersley (CB) and Wayne Gallman (RB) have already become frequent contributors on their respective teams. Just for good measure let us go back another year to 2016. Clemson had nine players drafted including one first and three second round picks. That is what constitutes a "loaded" roster. So what about Trubisky?
Like Watson he had five teammates selected in the 2017 draft with him. Unlike Watson none of them went higher than the third round. All of the offensive players went in the fourth or later and none have them have become steady contributors on their respective teams. Better still not a single North Carolina player was drafted the year before. In fact 2017 marked the first time UNC players went in the draft since 2014.
So was Trubisky really elevated by a great roster or did he perhaps elevate a decent roster into a good one?
Lacking a clutch factor? Uh, no.
Next we should address the idea that Fowler thinks Trubisky isn't clutch at all. No seriously he said so later in the piece:
"Trubisky too often couldn’t convert on the final drive when he had a chance. Chicago fans saw an example of this in Trubisky’s first NFL start, when he threw a bad interception in a 17-17 game with less than three minutes to play deep in his own territory to set up Minnesota’s game-winning field goal."
He's basing this off one game while ignored the other in Baltimore where he threw the pass that resulted in the winning field goal? Genius. If anything this is proof positive that Fowler didn't watch Mitch at all during his run as starter last year. If he had, there's no way he'd have the guts to call him a choker. In fact North Carolina owed a few of their victories thanks solely to his efforts.
Against Pitt the Tarheels trailed 36-23 in the fourth quarter. Trubisky rallied them to a 37-36 victory with both decisive scores being touchdown passes. He also converted three fourth down situations on the final drive.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAwwtD7HKHc
Against Florida State the next week his team fell behind 35-34 with just 23 seconds left in the game. Trubisky got them into field goal range in three plays with four seconds left. North Carolina won on a 54-yard field goal.
It should be worth noting that all five of Trubisky's losses involved the defense giving up 25 or more points. Four of those losses were by single digits.
Even in defeat he was difficult to put away
Yet he wants to talk about all those tight losses? Fine. Against Georgia Trubisky had UNC in the lead in the fourth quarter. Then the defense gave up two late touchdowns. Then there was N.C. State. The Tarheels were actually behind 21-0 and 28-7 at points in that game. Trubisky fired two touchdown passes in the fourth quarter to make it 28-21. Nobody bothers to remember his defense allowed 259 yards rushing that day.
Finally there was the Stanford game in the Sun Bowl. Everybody remembers the two bad interceptions Trubisky threw earlier in that game. Sure they were mistakes but again that's not telling the entire story. Down 25-17 with less than two minutes to play, he led his team down the field against a Cardinal defense that had sacked and hit him repeatedly all game long.
If that weren't enough matters were made worse when his receivers started dropping the football. By rights he should've had a touchdown with 1:03 left in the game but receiver Ryan Switzer had it bounce off his chest. Three more times his receivers would drop the ball on that drive. By the time North Carolina finally got into the end zone, there was only 25 seconds left in the game. This meant if the 2-point conversion failed, the game was over. On the ensuing play the offensive line badly missed a block and Trubisky was sacked.
[video width="854" height="480" mp4="https://www.sportsmockery.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Mitch-Trubisky-vs-Stanford-2016000626.839-000749.182.mp4"][/video]
For one last good measure shall we run through some of the winningest quarterbacks in college football history?
- Kellen Moore - 50-3
- Colt McCoy - 45-8
- Andy Dalton - 42-7
- David Green - 42-10
- Matt Leinart - 37-2
Meanwhile here are some college records for other notable quarterbacks:
- John Elway - 20-23
- Dan Fouts - 15-17-1
- Bart Starr - 20-20-5
- Brett Favre - 29-17
- Derek Carr - 28-15
Maybe it's not the best idea to base your entire argument on the record a quarterback had during his one season as a starter.
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