Chicago Bears: What other players think of Mitch Trubisky

The Chicago Bears young quarterback earned an interesting designation from his peers.

Arguing over how good their team’s quarterback has become a favorite past-time of Chicago Bears fans. Though the debate has raged on for decades, there have been fewer more polarizing quarterbacks in the team’s history than three of the more recent Bears’ signal-callers.

Rex Grossman, Jay Cutler, and Mitchell Trubisky have all drawn the ire and universal praise of Bears fans throughout their careers. The one thing all three had in common is just how equally divided fans have been over their respective merits as a quarterback.

Perhaps it was the huge expectations that came with being the No. 2 overall pick, but despite his relative inexperience coming out of college, most fans have dug their heels into one side of the debate.

Very few fans seemed to have taken a measured approach with Mitch. Rather, they fall into one of two camps: the “Mitch Meatballs,” with whom he can do no wrong, and the “Should have drafted Patrick Mahomes” crew, with whom he will never live up to expectations.

Next, we come to the media and pundits, who are also divided on Mitch, but there seem to be far more in the “anti-Mitch” crowd than the “pro-Mitch” crowd.

It is against that backdrop that we consider a recent survey of NFL defensive players conducted by the Athletic. The Athletic talked to 85 defensive players from 25 different teams. All responses were anonymous, to increase the likelihood that players would answer honestly.

The results regarding Mitchell Trubisky were interesting, to say the least. Cam Newton was voted the most underrated quarterback in the league, with Phillip Rivers and Alex Smith rounding out the top three. But it’s the other quarterbacks in that category that should be of interest to Bears fan. Russell Wilson, Drew Brees, Trubisky and Lamar Jackson all received multiple votes as being underrated.

Of course, this rating is relative to the public perception. You can only be considered underrated if the overall perception of you is bad. In other words, what the players are saying is that Trubisky is better than the perception of him.

Regardless, that is some pretty good company to be included among for Trubisky. And if you’re looking to rank order opinions, you should probably value those of the people who play the game on a daily basis over those who don’t.

But to each his own, and this debate will no doubt continue into the off-season, 2019, and beyond.