Mitchell Trubisky #10 of the Chicago Bears (Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images)
Former Chicago Bears guard Kyle Long still has a lot of belief in Mitchell Trubisky even if he admits Nick Foles was brought in to take his job.
Unlike the Chicago Bears, Kyle Long is putting all his money on the future of Mitchell Trubisky.
“I’m betting on 10, I’m going all-in on 10,” Long said.
Long expressed his belief in Trubisky on Da Windy City podcast lat month. He also said in the same interview he doesn’t believe Mitch will be the Bears quarterback in 2020.
“The writing is on the all for my friend,” Long predicted. “I think Nick Foles was brought in to be the starting quarterback.”
An important distinction is not being understood apparently by many Bears fans who gave Long a hard time on social media then, and now, four months later, at a gas station.
Let me try and do the work for Long.
He believes in Trubisky, it’s the Bears belief that has waned. It was general manager Ryan Pace who traded a fourth round pick to the Jaguars to get Foles, not Long. It is Bears head coach Matt Nagy and the coaching staff who are having an open competition at quarterback.
It was Nagy and a slightly different coaching staff that kept Trubisky mostly under wraps until the fourth quarter of their playoff game vs. the Philadelphia Eagles two seasons ago. Trubisky then came up clutch late and put the Bears in position to win the game. Then Cody Parkey happened.
Long remembers Trubisky shining brightest when it mattered most.
“That’s why you love a guy like10 with the ball in his hands because he is creating, he’s Russell Wilson‘ing back there and he’s doing what he needs to do to get the ball further than where we started,” Long said. “And it may not look like, the way that everybody wants it to look like, but if you put some pieces around him I promise you, it will start to look like maybe Baltimore, maybe Seattle. And you bring some guys in who can catch the ball down the field.
Maybe like Baltimore? That is a comparison to 2019 MVP Lamar Jackson. Maybe like Seattle? Now we have Super Bowl champion, seven-time Pro Bowler Russell Wilson. Big praise.
Is there anyone in the NFL who has that much confidence in Trubisky, other than maybe Pace did on draft day 2017? Pace seems to have lost at least some of the confidence as Trubisky is forced to confront his future in the NFL may not be as long as he hoped.
Long, remains a believer. Put the pieces around him and Trubisky will be successful. Don’t blame the quarterback.
Die-hard Trubisky fans, please leave Long alone at the gas station or flower shop. He is on your team.