Hub Arkush’s 2020 Bears report card: Quarterbacks

What if I told you Mitchell Trubisky’s 95.4 passer rating in 2018 and his 93.5 mark this season were the third and sixth best seasons by starting quarterbacks in Bears history?

Yep, only Sid Luckman (107.5, 1943) and Jim McMahon (97.8, 1984) were better than Trubisky’s 2018, and only Luckman, McMahon, Rudy Bukich (93.7, 1965) and Billy Wade (93.7, 1961) had better seasons than Mitch did this year, and Erik Kramer (93.5, 1995) tied him.

Nice, but it says a lot more about the black hole quarterback has been on the Bears’ depth chart for the last 75 seasons or so than they do about Trubisky’s performance.

They also don’t speak to what a complete flop the first year of the Nick Foles experiment was.

In fairness to both quarterbacks, it is hard to see how Trubisky was likely to improve or how Foles had a chance to be an improvement over Mitch with no offseason workout program, OTAs, minicamp, exhibition season or anything resembling a normal training camp due to the pandemic.

Positives: The only true positive here this season was the improvement in Trubisky’s play coming out of the bye week after the team adjusted its scheme, game plans and play-calling to better leverage his athleticism, running ability and ability to throw on the move, while limiting the times he was asked to stand deep in the pocket and read the field and throw into coverages.

After passer ratings of 104.2, 78.0, 71.8 and 74.1 in his first four starts, Trubisky went 108.3, 127.7, 97.7, 97.9, 81.7 and 96.8 in his last six.

Trubisky’s 67.0% completion percentage was the best of his career, and his 6.9 average per pass, while inadequate, was the second best of his career.

Foles’ positives were limited to 20 minutes in Atlanta when he came off the bench to throw three touchdowns to rescue victory from the jaws of defeat.

Negatives: After three seasons, Trubisky still struggles to read defenses. It doesn’t appear the game has slowed down for him yet, and he continued to target blanketed receivers and throw picks at critical points in big games.

Particularly disappointing was the lack of contributions he made with his legs after reclaiming the starting job even though the scheme had been changed to take advantage of that ability. It appeared the Bears had coached his running ability out of him by constantly preaching to him to trust the pocket and wait for plays to develop.

Foles was much worse.

Both QBs suffered from playing behind one of the worst offensive lines in the league the first half of the season, but Foles let it get to his head, had happy feet the entire time he was on the field, anticipated pressure more than it actually got to him, and as a result his accuracy was terrible and his mechanics often got away from him.

Defining moment: Just four minutes into the third quarter of Week 3 in Atlanta, after Trubisky threw an awful pick and in spite of the 2-0 start to the season, Nagy yanked Trubisky for Foles.

While Foles led a miracle comeback over the Falcons, the Bears would lose five of their next seven and the offense was the second worst in the league before Nagy could make changes and go back to Trubisky.

Contract status: Trubisky is now an unrestricted free agent.

Foles enters the second year of a very team-friendly deal that expires after the 2022 season, and while it does have $14.3 million of dead cap money remaining, he will count only $6.7 million against the cap in 2021, 28th among NFL QBs.

Hub’s grade: C. It felt worse than this for a good part of the season, but Mitch’s improvement over the final quarter of the season did turn the offense on. It played a huge role in getting them into the playoffs.

Hub’s plan: There is nothing to do with Foles. If a more traditional offseason makes him the solid starter they hoped for, great, and if not, his contract is average veteran backup money.

My first priority would be exploring trade possibilities for Matt Stafford, Matt Ryan or Marcus Mariota.

I don’t know if any will be available but the prices would be manageable and leave assets to upgrade other areas.

Without a trade I would attempt to re-sign Trubisky on a one-year prove-it deal or try and sign a free agent – Tyrod Taylor, Ryan Fitzpatrick or Andy Dalton, in that order – and have which ever one I got compete with Foles for the starting job, back him up if they didn’t win it, and invest heavily at left tackle, receiver and running back depth to improve the offense around them.