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Bears fans have waited so long for this, some probably can’t believe that it’s real.
I know I can’t.
A true franchise quarterback, who can lead a huddle, command a room, deal with the limelight, unite a locker room and play well on field, be accurate with the football, avoid mistakes and throw it deep.
We’ve seen a few of these traits at a time, here and there, glimpses of it, but it never all came together.
There has been a lot of hype around a new Bears offense and/or quarterback, but few really, deep down, felt like they could be the real deal like Mitchell Trubisky.
It’s still very early in camp, but there is a lot of evidence that Trubisky gets what it takes to be a successful NFL quarterback, and I don’t mean his Zero Dark 10 social media blackout.
Consider this, from Peter King Monday:
To learn all those plays, Trubisky spent the offseason drilling himself with flash cards, so he could accelerate his knowledge. Some of the plays are 15 words long or longer. So I wanted to do a test Sunday, to see how Helfrich and Trubisky were doing. As the 40-second play clock ticked down, and Helfrich called the plays into Trubisky’s helmet, and Trubisky announced the play in the huddle, and as the offense went to the line, I wanted to see how long it would take this process to happen. Would the offense be risking delay-of-game calls? On seven plays over two team periods, Trubisky had at least 16 seconds left when he got to the line and began surveying the defense. Well done.
Could this be the end of the first half timeouts figuring out the play calls? It’s too soon to tell and with any new offense, there will be hiccups. It’s promising though that a few practices in, that communication has been smooth.
Trubisky has also been working with his receivers for weeks and showed up to camp with the rookies, last Monday, to get to work three full days earlier, along with new teammate Allen Robinson.
He’s also become more of a leader, take this example from Kevin White on Monday, to ESPN’s Emily Kaplan:
Kevin White told me how he’s seen Mitch Trubisky grow as a leader over the past few months, so I asked for an example. “He did it today [at practice],” White said. “We has a slow start and Mitch pulled us aside and said, ‘’Let’s go. Don’t make the same mistake twice. Lock into the details and just play ball. Have fun.’ He has the confidence to do stuff like that.”
Or this quote from Kyle Long, also from Kaplan:
“He’s a grown man now,” Long said of Trubisky. “He’s got some bass in his voice. And he’s really taken ownership of this locker room.”
Trubisky flashed on the field last year, he’s said all the right things, he’s even made a few plays in the short time camp has been in session. It’s all there. Mitch Trubisky is doing the right things, the things any fan would want to see from their franchise quarterback.
Now comes the easy part: just go out and play. To prove it on the field. He has the off-field part down.
As Trubisky said at the end of a radio interview last month: “I just snap the ball and it’s all football after that.”
I can’t wait for that.