Matt Nagy Failed Mitch Trubisky

Mitch Trubisky was always going to be a project quarterback. Hell, coming into the NFL no one knew if he wanted to go by Mitchell or Mitch. At the time, he said to call him Mitchell, but it never stuck. Now, four seasons later, we're left with the same Mitch Trubisky we saw coming out of North Carolina in 2017.

While some of that falls on the Bears for drastically over-drafting him and some of it falls on Trubisky (we'll get to him sucking in a while), Bears head coach Matt Nagy failed him too.

When Nagy was hired by the Bears to lead their organization in 2018, it was specifically to cultivate the young quarterback they moved up in the draft to select the year before. Nagy was the Chiefs' offensive coordinator in 2017 and their quarterbacks coach from 2013-2016. During that time, he helped transform Alex Smith into a Pro Bowl quarterback and played a role in developing Patrick Mahomes as a rookie. The idea that he could do the same with Trubisky was too tantalizing for the Bears to pass up. As it turns out, Andy Reid was the mastermind of Smith's transformation and Nagy wasn't ready to do the same.

Coming out of North Carolina, the scouting reports said Trubisky's primary weaknesses were lack of starting experience (only one year), inconsistent deep throws that hang in the air, poor field vision and blitz recognition, and bad footwork under pressure. Well, if you watched him against the Packers, all of those same issues remain. He threw two interceptions on deep passes that fluttered in the air and were thrown into tight coverage. He also was strip-sacked. You can watch all three plays below.

That is a quarterback displaying the same technical issues he had coming out of college. While I'm not saying Nagy should have fixed all of them and it's his fault Trubisky hasn't improved, it's clear whatever Nagy has taught Trubisky isn't resulting in improvement. If anything, his tactics have led to a regression in Trubisky's play. And he's not the only one.

Nagy wanted the Bears to sign Nick Foles this offseason and so they did. How has Foles faired under Nagy's watch? Before being injured, Foles was pacing toward his worst season as a primary starter since 2015. He was a shell of the quarterback we saw star with the Eagles and had thrown as many interceptions in seven starts this year (8) as he had in his previous 13 starts (8) with four of those coming for an 0-4 Jaguars team.

Trubisky's best season came in 2018 in Nagy's first year as Bears head coach. That year, he threw for 24 touchdowns against 12 interceptions, completed two-thirds of his passes and finished with 3,223 passing yards in 14 starts. Since then, he's regressed in every statistical category and proven to be an incapable starting quarterback.

Is that his fault? Sure. Is that the Bears 'fault for picking him far higher than he deserved in retrospect? Yes. But Nagy's job was to fix the issues everyone know Trubisky had coming out of college. He was unable to do that, failing Trubisky and the Bears simultaneously.