First Impressions: New Bears Coaches' Talk Up Mitchell Trubisky
One of the great unknowns in terms of coaching dynamics for the Bears is how Mitchell Trubisky actually fits working with new offensive coaching staff members Bill Lazor and John DeFilippo.
Lazor as the new offensive coordinator and DeFilippo as quarterbacks coach both came to the Bears after spending time coaching Nick Foles, but obviously hadn't coached Trubisky.
So far Lazor is impressed with Trubisky's knowledge but this doesn't include facing any live practice, merely walk through and virtual classroom work.
"I think he's shown his great recall which I think is a critical part for the quarterback," Lazor said. "When we're talking about installing a play, he can talk about when it was put it, why it was put in, what the situations were, even what happened."
This might not seem as important as actually executing a pass play, but Lazor called it essential.
"I just think one of the keys like when a quarterback hears a play in the huddle, there's got to be recall and the recall's got to be not only what is this play that's called, to put it simply, but the reason why the best quarterbacks in the league are typically the older quarterbacks—the reason why the older quarterbacks, if they can do it physically, just get better and better and better is because their recall is also a library of all the experiences they've had, playing that play. Right? Where you get to a point where it's hard to fool them anymore, because they've seen all the defenses."
DeFilippo's first impression of Trubisky is someone who will own his mistakes and try to improve them.,
"The mistakes he made last season, you know, he had a reason for them," said DeFilippo, who was in Jacksonville when those were made. "'Hey, my eyes were in the wrong spot.' I'm just using an example. 'My eyes were in the wrong spot, I didn't get my target line set,' whatever those reasons were.
"So that tells you also that the young man is coach-able. He's willing to admit he made a mistake, and that's a good quality you have to have as a quarterback, whether you’re a rookie or a 12-year vet. And he's been open to new ideas, of hearing a different voice and maybe a little bit different way of taking a drop, whether it's to the left or to the right. He's been very open about that since he and I have been face-to-face on the field as well."
DeFilippo's opinion might move one way or another as they get into practices.
"From the amount of time we've spent together, the unique offseason we've had, that's all you can ask is that the guy is smart, he's diligent, is willing to admit he's made a mistake, and is coach-able."
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