Chicago Bears: How good must Trubisky be for a playoff run?

The Chicago Bears look like a team that might be capable of their first playoff run in eight years. Fans are feeling the level of expectation rise.

Most of it is thanks to their remade defense. This is not the Urlacher-Briggs-Tillman style unit that people loved for so many years. This one is different in a number of ways. This defense is about attacking the quarterback. Khalil Mack, Akiem Hicks, Leonard Floyd, Eddie Goldman, and Aaron Lynch have spearheaded an attack that already has 14 sacks in three games. They’ve done this while calling the fewest number of blitzes in the NFL.

That’s a frightening reality that few quarterbacks want to face. Chicago ranks #5 overall in defense in football and some feel they’re just getting started. Safety Eddie Jackson has begun to emerge as a playmaker while 1st round pick Roquan Smith is making himself at home at inside linebacker. There’s room for this defense to grow into one of the best there is. It’s for this reason that many fans have turned up the heat on quarterback Mitch Trubisky.

They feel that this is a championship defense in waiting. In other words, the offense is holding this team back from being in line for a possible Super Bowl run. That might not be entirely fair. The defense has been in the same system now for four years under Vic Fangio. The offensive system under Matt Nagy is brand new with almost entirely new players. Expecting them to dominate from the outset was never realistic.

So here’s a more reasonable question. How good does Trubisky have to be to at least make the playoffs? Bears history left me with an astounding answer.

Chicago Bears playoff QB history is anything but impressive

The truth is the Bears are a team that has always done it the traditional way. Every single one of their playoff teams in the Super Bowl era could do two things:  it could run the ball and it could play good defense. With Jordan Howard in the backfield and the defense they have, there’s no reason to think they can’t do it again in 2018. People will argue, “No way! They can’t do it without a quarterback.”

Actually, yes they can. Here’s a look at the total QB stat lines of every playoff run the Bears made dating back to 1977.

The Bears have averaged 2,961 passing yards, 16 touchdowns and 17 interceptions in their playoff trips over the past 40 years. Now, of course, that doesn’t mean Trubisky can skate by with those types of numbers, but it does illustrate a point. This organization is built on a foundation of knowing how to win ugly. It’s in their bones. The problem that so many quarterbacks have, aside from many of them being no good, is that they try too hard.

That seems like what Trubisky is doing now. He’s so desperate to make plays and get the offense up to the defense’s level that he’s making mistakes. He can’t relax and just play. He isn’t trusting the good team he has around him. That is typical of a young quarterback. Trubisky is trying to do everything, and as a result, isn’t doing much.

The good news is that among the quarterbacks of those teams listed above, he’s easily more talented than the majority of them. He’s also younger than most of them as well. All he has to do is keep working and learn to trust the system. That should come with time.