More Mitchell Trubisky Bashers Join the Overstatement Parade
The Mitchell Trubisky bashing continues.
There apparently is never an offseason or bye week for it.
Chris Simms, son of Hall of Fame quarterback Phil, has put out his annual top 40 quarterback list on Pro Football Talk and ranked Trubisky No. 38.
"As far as accuracy is concerned, it can be all over the place sometimes," Simms said. "I mean way too many slam dunk NFL completions missed by Mitchell Trubisky. Let alone decision making questionable at times, feel within the pocket. I don't think he ran enough this past year, I know he hurt his shoulder, but he lost that aspect of his game."
There's no doubt Trubisky avoided running last year, but he was doing it before he suffered the shoulder injury. He said before the season he wanted to run to pass not be a runner. No one paid attention.
Simms might have something here with his ranking.
He knows all about poor passing. He has a career passer rating of 69.1 himself, which is well below Trubisky's 85.8 career rating, and also below Rex Grossman (71.4), Kordell Stewart (70.7), Kyle Boller (69.5) and Joey Harrington (69.4).
Simms said he expects Nick Foles to win the quarterback battle but does rate Trubisky ahead of Tua Tagovailoa, who he ranked 40th before throwing an NFL pass.
Some of the reaction to Simms' analysis on the PFT website was far more interesting than the rating.
"Simms criticizing QB's is like taking investment advice from a homeless person," said reader Stu Bidaciou
And then there was the comment from reader nnagi: "I don't get why you continue to feature Chris Simms, the guy never amounted to anything as a player, wears his shirts too small and looks ridiculous with ear pods."
Apparently nnagi is a fashion expert.
The best way for Bears fans to approach the Simms summation is they then have the sixth-best backup quarterback in the league, considering his place as No. 38 and the fact Simms has Foles winning the starting job.
The other rip job came from Doug Farrar of USA Today, who called Trubisky the worst deep passer in the NFL because his "...performance on deep passes is stunningly bad."
Then he tossed out Trubisky's "EPA" as a reason. It's not the Environmental Protection Agency or eicosapentaenoic acid, or extra Poindexter averages.
It's expected points added. Of course.
Trubisky had a minus-14.6 and "far outpaced the field," Farrar said, no doubt before adjusting his pocket protector.
Oh no, a minus-14.6.
In summation, Farrar apparently still has hope for Trubisky because he suggested of the deep passing troubles: "It's one of many things Trubisky will have to improve if he's ever to be thought of as anything but a draft bust."
This term draft bust gets tossed around loosely these days.
Trubisky obviously isn't Patrick Mahomes or Deshaun Watson and this is a Bears disappointment.
He is not a bust.
There are levels to failure. One does not succeed wildly or go straight to H-E-double hockey sticks.
Perhaps this pocket protector class should understand that a quarterback who compiles a 95.4 passer rating in his second season, helps his team win the division with a 12-4 record and comes within a Cody Parkey double-doink of beating the Super Bowl MVP after outplaying him in postseason cannot be a draft bust.
Trubisky simply is not as good as Ryan Pace thought; a lesser passer than many but better than a few.
Trubisky does have difficulty with long passes and it doesn't take anal retentive silliness like a dorky "EPA" score to see. It's obvious with the naked eye and video.
And isn't an EPA score what they give you after your auto emissions test anyway?
Not even Chris Simms was a draft bust after he was a third-round pick and started only 16 games.
A draft bust is someone like Cade McNown, a 12th pick in the draft who never did anything individually or to help a team go anywhere. A bust is someone like Kevin White, who gets taken seventh overall and then catches 25 passes in his career.
A draft bust is someone like Akili Smith, who was taken third overall ahead of McNown and compiled a 52.8 passer rating with only 17 career starts.
A draft bust is Ryan Leaf, who got taken second overall like Trubisky, made only 17 starts and had a career passer rating of 50. Or Todd Marinovich, who was taken in Round 1, threw 205 passes with eight starts and then had his career go up in smoke.
A draft bust is Johnny Football.
Too many people today like incorrect labels for the sake of shock value, and like throwing around analytical formulas with no real life value.
It's an age of overstatement and under-description on many fronts
Twitter: BearDigest@BearsOnMaven
