:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/60871433/856426944.jpg.0.jpg)
Sometimes you need an outsider’s perspective to feel comfortable in life choices. Sometimes that means a loved one advising you to not splurge on a big screen TV you don’t need on Amazon. And sometimes that means another NFL team commending your budding franchise quarterback.
The Bears held joint practices with the Broncos in Denver over the past two days in advance of a preseason game on Saturday. In that time, the Broncos’ two most prominent faces in star pass rusher Von Miller and general manager John Elway had nothing but compliments for Mitchell Trubisky as he enters his second NFL season.
Miller, for one, was effusive in his praise of the 23-year-old Trubisky on Wednesday, and especially after Trubisky carved Denver’s defense up. This is player he’s long held in high regard.
“Mitch is a great quarterback,” Miller said after Wednesday’s session. “I think with the offensive scheme and the players they have around him he is going to be great. He was great last year. Great in college as well. He’s their franchise quarterback. He can do a little bit of everything so you have to be prepared for everything.”
Earlier this off-season, Miller was also on the podcast Pardon My Take to discuss the NFC North quarterback landscape, which by association includes Trubisky.
“Mitchell Trubisky, he is going to be great,” Miller said then in March.
Miller’s thoughts on Trubisky then meant that on Wednesday the star edge rusher was merely doubling down on his previous opinion.
Meanwhile, after the Bears and Broncos finished a testy practice on Thursday, Elway put his affinity for the Chicago quarterback into great detail.
“I liked Mitch (Trubisky) coming out,” Elway said. “I am sure he’s in his second camp and things are a little more clear and he has a good feel for playing as much as he did last year and going through his first year. I think Mitch has got a lot of talent and he’s got a chance to have a really successful career. I think they continue to make strides. It’s always hard. He’s putting in a new offensive system that he’s got to get used too. Physically, he’s got all the tools.”
To be completely fair to Elway, it’s fair to take his evaluation of Trubisky with a grain of salt. That’s in the consideration of this being the man who used a first round pick on tremendous bust Paxton Lynch in 2016 and tried to make 2015 seventh rounder Trevor Siemiean a viable starter for a few seasons to no avail. All of it done while wasting years of Miller and a great overall defense following a victory in Super Bowl 50.
From the other side of the coin, it’s a first-ballot Hall of Fame quarterback in Elway seeing something special in Trubisky and lamenting that he didn’t have a chance to draft him as an executive. Whatever makes you feel better.
In Miller’s case, the six-time Pro Bowler and Super Bowl 50 MVP with 83.5 sacks in seven seasons, has seen his fair share of quarterbacks as he’s harassed them to no end. As a star defender of the highest order paid to stop elite offensive signal callers, it’s his judgment of quarterbacks that might mean the most.
If Miller is praising Trubisky so much now, a player he isn’t scheduled to face in a regular season game until next year, it’s game appreciating game. It’s Miller seeing traits in Trubisky that he’s seen in the quarterbacks he’s really had to get after to disrupt.
That, or like Elway, Miller is only lamenting the fact that Trubisky is more talented than his current quarterback Case Keenum and Denver’s recent situation under center. Whatever makes you feel better.
In any event, it appears Trubisky is already firmly winning over his peers outside of the Bears’ bubble.
Robert is an editor, writer, and producer for Windy City Gridiron, The Rock River Times, The Athletic Chicago, and other fine places. You can follow him on Twitter @RobertZeglinski.