Chicago Bears Give up on Mitchell Trubisky Less Than a Year After Hyping Him

The Chicago Bears have declined their fifth-year option on Mitchell Trubkisky's contract, showing just how far the 25-year-old quarterback has fallen. Last summer, the Bears were all-in on Trubisky, sure that he was the key to their future. Roughly 10 months later, he's being pushed aside.

The Bears shocked everyone during the 2017 NFL Draft when they traded up from the third pick to No. 2 and selected Trubisky out of North Carolina. In doing so, they passed on future stars Patrick Mahomes and Deshaun Watson. Instead they got Trubisky, who has been a mess. Even his 2018 season that offered so much hope was a bit of a facade.

In 2018, Trubisky completed 66.6 percent of his passes for 3,223 yards, with 24 touchdowns and 12 interceptions. But while his Total QBR (71.0) ranked third in the NFL, his passer rating (95.4) ranked 16 and his yards per attempt (7.4) ranked 17th. The Bears went to the playoffs and Trubisky was named a Pro Bowl replacement for Jared Goff. Folks in Chicago were excited, people were even interested in the young quarterback's love life. The Bears rested a lot of hope in that QBR number and the run to the playoffs that was mostly built by their defense.

Chicago paid a price for its faith in the young quarterback. Trubisky was straight awful in 2019. He finished the season completing 63.2 percent of his passes for 3,138 yards, with 17 touchdowns and 10 interceptions. He finished 32nd in yards per attempt (6.1), 28th in QBR (39.4), 27th in touchdown passes, and 28th in quarterback rating (83.0). But hey, give the kid credit for consistency, he was horrible from start to finish.

Trubisky has been exposed as largely a checkdown quarterback in an era where quarterbacks are getting more accurate down-field. He seems completely risk-averse, which isn't a winning formula in the modern, pass-happy NFL. Oh, and for some odd reason he has issues throwing to his left:

It's obvious that whatever momentum existed in Chicago fell apart in 2019. Trubisky disintegrated before our eyes and was even benched in favor of Chase Daniel at one point. Meanwhile, the Bears wound up 8-8 when they were supposed to contend for a Super Bowl. Things are so bad that Chicago brought in Nick Foles and his bad contract to compete for the starting quarterback job. The franchise just gave up on Trubisky rapidly. Even local restaurants turned on him.

It really is amazing how quickly things turned sour for Trubisky. Even bad quarterbacks get their fifth-year options picked up on the off-chance they turn things around. The Bears say he's in an open competition for the starting job but it's fairly clear they're already looking ahead to life after he's gone.