One day before Mitch Trubisky’s boss is expected to defend him to the public, the quarterback’s teammates got a head start doing the same.
While they were cleaning out their lockers at Halas Hall on Monday following a disappointing 8-8 season, Bears players pointed to Trubisky’s intangibles. That’s an easier argument to make than a statistical one. Trubisky finished his third season ranked No. 32 in the NFL with 6.1 yards per passing yards per attempt and 28th with an 83 passer rating.
“I mean, he’s resilient as hell,” said right tackle Bobby Massie, who was limited to 10 starts this season because of injuries. “He caught a lot of heat from outside this building and he just fought through it all. He never folded.
“He stood up and fought for the offense every week and played the best that he could every game.”
Is that good enough? General manager Ryan Pace will be asked that very question Tuesday when he addresses the media for the first time since the week of the Bears’ season-opening loss to the Packers.
Pace and head coach Matt Nagy must decide this offseason whether Trubisky will remain their starter; if so, whether they’ll bring in a veteran to challenge him; and if they will extend him a fifth-year option for 2021. Chase Daniel, Trubisky’s backup the last two years who has played only when he was too injured to take the field, will be a free agent in March.
“Mitch is a leader,” said rookie receiver Riley Ridley, who caught a fourth-down pass Sunday that set up the Bears’ game-winning field goal against the Vikings’ second string. “He may not ... guys may not see it looking in from the outside, but he’s a leader. He’s a guy that wants to do things the right way.
“As a young guy, I want to get behind him, I want to follow him. That was just some of the things I want to do — I just want to get in his ear, let him know, ‘I’m a young guy, but I’m going to be able to step up one day.’”
Asked whether the offensive line took responsibility for Trubisky’s play, Massie said that that “we just give him time” and “he’s the one throwing the ball and making the reads.” He praised Trubisky’s attitude, though.
“It’s very contagious,” he said. “When you see your quarterback doing it, he’s the face of the team. So it hypes everybody up and gets everybody else ready to go.”
All the positivity in the world, though, doesn’t change the fact that the Bears offense is broken and must be fixed. They finished the regular season ranked second-to-last in the league with 4.7 yards per play and fourth-to-last with 17.5 points and 296.8 yards per game. At no point during the season did the Bears rank any higher than 28th in points per game.
The Bears scored 30 offensive points in the first quarter all season. They failed to register an offensive first-half touchdown in in 11 of 16 games.
“We just didn’t score points,” Massie said. “At the end of the day, that’s what we have to do. We didn’t get into the end zone, a lot of three-and-outs. Inconsistent opening drive of the game, not scoring in the first quarter. There were a lot of things that we didn’t accomplish as an offense this year that we need to get better at.”
