How Mitchell Trubisky could change the Chicago Bears offense

1. Teams will actually have to fear play-action now

Well, okay: technically, the Chicago Bears could, and did, run play-action with Mike Glennon as the starting quarterback.

He was just extraordinarily ineffective at it.

That’s utterly disgusting, given that the entire point of play–action is to actually force the action down the field. Glennon’s refusal to keep defenses honest on these plays led to opponents just pouncing on the run and taking away his short/intermediate game.

With Trubisky in the lineup, this strategy becomes much harder for opposing defenses to stick to for two reasons.

For one, Trubisky has far more arm talent than Glennon and has proven that he’s not afraid to show it.

Nothing overly complicated about this: Trubisky sells the fake, Gentry runs a fade, and his quarterback hits him perfectly for the score. It should always look like this, right?

Well…in theory. We do have to remember that this play came against backups. Top-flight NFL corners like Xavier Rhodes might be less likely to get caught peeking in the backfield than…whoever that was.

But, assuming the Chicago Bears keep feeding Jordan Howard and Tarik Cohen the way they have been, just the threat of that throw could change the game.

No longer can Bears’ opponents just crowd the line of scrimmage and simply jump on short throws when Chicago goes play-action. If they cheat up on play-action or get caught peaking, Trubisky can, and hopefully will, make them pay for it in a way Glennon never did or could.

And if they utilize some of the run-pass options and read-option-style play-action fakes that Trubisky loved in college, accompanied by quick throws, the rookie could move the ball very quickly even against pro defenses.