Maybe It Was Never Mitch's Fault
I'm not clickbating you guys I swear. We had Wanny in the office last week to talk Bears and sharpen up on the NFL season. It was classic Hurricane Wanny dropping knowledge bombs left and right. He's a natural story teller with a knack for the microphone, which was no surprise to anyone who knows Wanny. The guy is an electric factory.
What really caught me off guard though was his staunch stance on Mitch. I know some of you think I'm going to come over the top with Pro-Mitch propaganda, but really Wanny does it for me before I get a chance. Keep an open mind as you read this:
Now you got Justin Fields. He’s probably a better runner than Mitch, he’s a better passer than Mitch, but you got kind of the same type of guy in my opinion. Are they gonna commit to doing what he does best or are they gonna stay with ‘the Nick Foles offense?’ To me, I think there’s some real discussions going on offensively, ‘what do you want to do?’ He’s got a philosophy and he believes in it, but I don’t know if it fits Justin Fields as good right now. I know it doesn’t. I don’t think Mitch Trubisky truly had a chance to do what he does best week after week after week.
This was around the same time Wanny said (paraphrasing):
Give me that defense a few years ago, David Montgomery and Mitch, and I'll take you to the playoffs every single year. Will we win a Super Bowl? Probably not. But we're going to the playoffs.
There were some examples of the early 2000's Dolphins that averaged over 10 wins in his first 4 years. There were some nuggets about NFL player development and quarterback strategy. But the biggest takeaway was that Wanny didn't really love Nagy's approach and scheme. He didn't say it outright, but he challenged the philosophy and basically said Mitch never got a fair shake, which is something that's largely escaped his narrative. Instead he's become the face of bad drafting over the last couple years for reasons far outside his control. I don't want to talk about Mahomes at this point.
Nagy? That's fine by me.
Wanny's opinion doesn't exist in a vacuum. In the interview, he got into how much time they spend together on set talking football. Him, Bradshaw, Jimmy, the whole cast and crew chopping it up on Sundays. They've been doing it for years. If one of them is coming out and putting it on Nagy's brain, then you imagine that's not a distant sentiment for many other football lifers. I'm definitely not one of those guys but far be it from me to disagree.
The surprising thing is that this isn't more of an accepted theory to why the last couple years didn't work out. We've speculated inside and out on Red Line, but we're not locker room guys with lanyards asking questions and taking notes. I don't have the kind of mind that allows me to say this about Nagy/Fields/Mitch definitively:
… I don’t know if [Nagy's scheme] fits Justin Fields as good right now. I know it doesn’t. I don’t think Mitch Trubisky truly had a chance to do what he does best…
Feels like the world was so quick to shit on Mitch that nobody ever stopped to think about if he was given a real chance to be successful. Maybe there's a whole different playbook and relationship that would've yielded better outcomes for everyone involved. Bad news is we'll never know the truth. Good news is we've already moved on.
Or are we just repeating history?
Hard to build a good scheme if you don't know what the word means. Even harder to develop a good quarterback if you don't know what that looks like.
Although there is some major saving grace. This guy showed up to work today and I honestly don't think he'll ever care about a scheme or strategy or game plan. Just give him the ball and get the fuck out of the way.
Advertisement
And maybe one day we can all forget this ever happened. With or without Nagy.