Those who complain about comparing Bears quarterback Mitch Trubisky to Chiefs star Patrick Mahomes are missing the point.
“It doesn’t matter if they’re fair — they’re inevitable,” Bears offensive coordinator Mark Helfrich said Thursday. “Guys, whether you’re an NFL quarterback in your 17th year or your first year or the same year, certainly will lend to more comparison. And that’s going to happen. That’s going to happen if you play any position in this league forever. That will happen, if you play it differently.
“I don’t know if [Trubisky] sits at home and looks at their stats line and compares each other or not. But there’s things you kind of take them in, you spit them out and you move on. Whether it’s, ‘Hey, I’m way better than this guy’ — or way worse, whatever those results or conclusions are — what he does between the white lines and off the field is what matters.”
Bears coach Matt Nagy, defensive coordinator Chuck Pagano nor Helfrich were on staff when general Ryan Pace traded up to draft Trubisky second overall in 2017, but the three have been bombarded with questions about that comparison all week.
Leading into Sunday night’s game against Mahomes and the Chiefs, Bears coaches have all been vocally, justifiably, enamored with Mahomes’ skill — even as it serves as a reminder that the franchise passed on the Texas Tech quarterback in favor of Trubisky.
Film of Mahomes looks like a video game, Pagano said.
“He’s a smooth operator,” Pagano said. “It’s ‘Madden,’ you know, times 1,000.
“It’s for real. It’s not a game-type deal. And he’s scary good.”
Pagano’s admiration extends to head coach Andy Reid, who he said, half-jokingly, called plays a decade ago that still haunt him.
“You just get sick to your stomach watching the more tape that you watch,” he said of Reid’s offense.
Pairing that scheme with Mahomes — who is one year and one month younger than Trubisky — has proved revolutionary. The quarterback’s intelligence “has got to be off the charts because of all of the stuff that they do,” Pagano said, noting how Mahomes manages the clock, formations and protections at the line of scrimmage.
“It’s really, really easy for him,” Pagano said. “I mean, it’s crazy, being as young as he is. I mean, this guy orchestrates that whole thing and he does a phenomenal job, and he looks like he’s been in that system for 10 years. There’s no panic.
“He’s rare. He’s elite. Whatever adjective you want to put on him. The arm talent is crazy. The throws that he makes on schedule are crazy. The off-schedule ones are just mind-boggling, under duress, you know, feet not set, drifting backwards, jumping up in the air, across his body.
“You guys have seen them all, we’ve seen them all. He’s just a tremendous, tremendous player.”
He proved it last year, throwing 50 touchdowns to earn the NFL MVP. He won’t win it this season — Lamar Jackson, drafted in the following draft class, has it locked up — but the Chiefs have their eyes on bigger goals.
‘They had a great year [in 2018] — but I know how they work, too,” said Nagy, who left Kansas City for the Bears in January 2018. “They were happy about that, but that’s not why they’re there, either.
“You can break world records, but they’re there to win a Super Bowl. I know that for a fact. That’s what they want to do. “
