Chicago Bears: Bill O’Brien Hints Trubisky Move Was Wise

The Chicago Bears caught a ton of flak from critics when they traded up to draft Mitch Trubisky at #2 last April. Many felt it was way too big a risk.

Trubisky was inexperienced and the team gave up too much in the deal to get him on top of that. Those voices only grew louder through the first four games he played. He failed to top 200 yards passing in any of them and barely completed half his passes. However, as the season wore on signs began to appear. Trubisky looked calmer, more confident and began to execute at a higher level with each week.

He finished the season on a high note despite limited weaponry and unimaginative coaching. Suddenly those same critics were quieter. The Bears have since improved their coaching issue and expectations are they’ll be active in finding better weapons this off-season. One additional aspect that has come to light? The mighty 2018 draft class, the one that everybody felt might be the best seen in years, has lost its luster.

Texans head coach Bill O’Brien hints teams knew this was coming

One thing about the media is it always tends to blow things out of proportion. This was proven the case with the 2018 class. Even before the 2017 draft was over there were whispers that teams were avoiding quarterbacks so they could position for this year. This despite the fact that three teams in Chicago, Kansas City, and Houston all made considerable trades to go get one in the 1st round. Texans head coach Bill O’Brien dropped a major spoiler that this was not by accident.

"“I think it’s a good group of guys. You’ve got Mitchell and you’ve got Deshaun and you’ve got Mahomes — and you’ve got some guys in that class that are good pro football players.I know that our scouts go out on the road and they’re collecting information on not just guys who are draft eligible for this year, but they’re also looking to the future for next year,” O’Brien said. “I know that people in our organization were very aware of what the class was coming up.”"

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It’s hard to misinterpret that sentence. O’Brien is basically saying that the Texans were unimpressed with the projected 2018 class. So much so that they willingly gave up their 1st round pick in this draft in order to get Watson. The same was true of the Chiefs. Chicago gave up multiple 3rd rounders because they were so paranoid about losing out on Trubisky. If that’s not a telling indicator, nothing is. Time will tell if the Bears got the right guy but it’s at least clear they may have chosen the right time to go after him.