Chicago Bears: Why trading for Marcus Mariota makes sense

Following another disappointing outing from Mitch Trubisky, here’s why the Chicago Bears should not hesitate to trade for another former number two overall pick who already has ties within the organization.

Sorry Chicago Bears fans: Mitch Trubisky is the next Blake Bortles. A quarterback known more for his athletic ability rather than his ability to throw accurate passes down the field. Ultimately, like Bortles showed during his time in Jacksonville, Trubisky is proving that mediocre quarterback play can sink a team’s championship aspirations in a heartbeat.

Plenty of blame for the Bears’ 3-3 record can go around to others within the organization outside their quarterback play, but repeatedly watching Trubisky overthrow open receivers, or just plainly miss them makes you wonder how on earth he was considered by many a top signal caller coming out of the 2017 draft?

Ryan Pace’s bold move to trade up to select Trubisky over both Deshaun Watson and Patrick Mahomes is haunting him even more with each passing week. Trubisky has regressed badly, despite being in his second season with head coach, Matt Nagy.

Granted, Nagy’s play-calling has been baffling this entire season to date, given that despite saying the Bears need to have a better run game, he’d rather have his quarterback drop back to throw the ball at will. Abandoning the run game early on is hard on any quarterback and it only makes it much harder for the offense to find any sort of rhythm.

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With that said though, it’s important to note that Trubisky is the one still not seeing the field properly, while not throwing the ball with confidence and conviction. Those two words: confidence and conviction, are rarely associated with Trubisky’s play on the field, if at all. And we’re in Year 3 of the Trubisky era, yet the same glaring issues shown in his rookie season have yet to correct themselves.

Nagy remains firm in his commitment to Trubisky as his starting quarterback, largely because there unfortunately isn’t a better option on the roster. Chase Daniel is a well-respected veteran on the Bears, and while he has proven to be more accurate throwing the football than Trubisky, his lack of mobility to extend plays hurts the Bears, given their shaky offensive line play.

With the trade deadline approaching, maybe it’s the perfect time for Pace to trade for Marcus Mariota, a former Heisman Winning quarterback at Oregon who throughout his career has shown more promising at the position than Trubisky has.

The Tennessee Titans recently benched Mariota for his inconsistent play, but when you’re dealing with learning a fourth offensive system in five seasons as a pro, what do you expect?

Mariota has just as much physical talent as Trubisky, maybe even more. He’s dealt with injuries over his career like Trubisky, but he also would bring in much more upside at the position than Daniel does.

Trading for Mariota likely wouldn’t cost a ton of draft capital, given that he’s in the final year of his rookie contract. In addition, he has one thing working in his favor if he were to join the Bears: Current offensive coordinator, Mark Helfrich was Mariota’s head coach at Oregon.

Helfrich brought out the best in Mariota, catering his offense to all his strengths. There is no doubt he’d appreciate having an opportunity to help resurrect Mariota’s career in the pros.

Maybe part of the reason why Trubisky hasn’t progressed as a passer is because he’s had no one down on the depth chart to help elevate his play since coming into the league three seasons ago. Having good competition at any position can bring out the best in a player, especially if he feels there’s someone gunning for his spot.

Mariota, given his track record, would be a much better backup option than Chase Daniel. He also is probably a better quarterback than Trubisky, but at the very least can provide a positive spark on offense that the Bears desperately need.

Continuing to play Trubisky or switching over to Daniel isn’t likely going to result in too many good things happening for the Bears any time soon unless you put Daniel’s brain into Trubisky’s body in some maddening Frankenstein experiment. Until that happens, the Bears might as well say goodbye to this season.

Does Pace have one more bold move up his sleeve at the quarterback position? If he does, he better act fast.