Mitch Trubisky’s struggles are well-documented in Chicago. The former second-overall pick had a bumpy four seasons with the Bears, including a front-row seat to Matt Nagy.
After a stop in Buffalo, where he got to learn from Josh Allen and Brian Daboll, Trubisky now finds himself competing for the starting quarterback job with the Steelers.
Looking back, Trubisky reflected on what went wrong in Chicago — specifically how he felt restricted by the coaches, namely Nagy.
“Even if you got a completion [in Chicago], I felt like sometimes it wasn’t necessarily what the coach wanted,” Trubisky told Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated. “They put you in a box a little bit more than you wanted to be, and I think that restricts you as a player.”
As Bears fans know, Nagy was adamant in running his offense — fitting the players to the scheme and not the other way around. It’s why his offense didn’t work with Trubisky, Nick Foles, Andy Dalton or Justin Fields.
But it was a completely different situation that Trubisky walked into with the Bills. Trubisky saw a coaching staff that built an offense around the strengths of the quarterback, something he had to demand in his final season with the Bears.
“The difference between my experience in Chicago and what I saw in Buffalo is they allow Josh (Allen) to go out there and play his game,” Trubisky said. “In Chicago, they wanted me to play the coaches’ game. Call it whatever you will, that’s just how it felt to me.”
It’s not the first criticism that Nagy and his coaching staff has received, nor will it likely be the last. But it certainly makes you feel better about the position that Trubisky — and current Bears quarterback Justin Fields — are in without Nagy at the reins.
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