Mitchell Trubisky Could Be 2022 QB Carousel’s Biggest Winner

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Now that Super Bowl LVI has been relegated to the annals of history—and with it, the 2021 NFL season—the attention of fans just about everywhere but Los Angeles (there’s still some basking going on there) has shifted to the 2022 offseason. And for the foreseeable future, the dominant storyline of that offseason will be the potential movement of players at the game’s most important position.

Fans from Pittsburgh to Denver are hoping against hope that their team acquires Aaron Rodgers. They’ll toss a penny in the wishing well and ask for Russell Wilson. They might have to swallow their pride just a little and hope for something in a gently-used Jimmy Garoppolo.

But it’s not the biggest names that will define this season’s quarterback carousel. As is the case more years than not, most of those big names won’t be going anywhere. It’s not going to be a splashy trade that will produce this year’s biggest winner among signal-callers on the move.

No, the biggest winner of this year’s quarterback carousel will be a player who wasn’t even a starter in 2021. It’s going to be a young quarterback who will get the chance to get his professional career back on track—an opportunity for redemption.

The biggest winner of this year’s quarterback carousel will be Mitchell David Trubisky of the Buffalo Bills.

To say that Trubisky didn’t see much in the way of playing time in his first year with the Bills is an understatement. As a backup to Josh Allen, Trubisky attempted just eight passes, completing six for 43 yards with an interception.

But as Katherine Fitzgerald wrote for the Buffalo News, just because Trubisky didn’t play doesn’t mean he didn’t make an impression on Bills general manager Brandon Beane.

“For a guy that wants to play, I worried in-season if he was going to start getting the itch, like, ‘Man, I want to get out there,'” Beane said. “And even someone called us at the trade deadline asking about him, and I just … he was such a great fit for us, I couldn’t part with him knowing the team we had.

If anybody calls me about Mitch on another team, I’m going to give him a great recommendation. And I’ve told him and his agent, if he doesn’t get what he wants, we’ve got a spot for him.”

Allen echoed those sentiments.

“I love the guy to death,” Allen said in December. “He’s awesome, he’s an awesome teammate. Guys love him, guys gravitate towards him. So, I can see why we went out and got him, and I’m just thankful we did.”

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Now, at this point, some readers are rolling their eyes so hard you can literally hear it. Sure, Trubisky may be a fine human being and a great teammate. But he’s also a bad quarterback—a massive draft bust the Chicago Bears cut bait on after four seasons.

However, it’s not Trubisky’s fault that the Bears traded up to draft him second overall in 2017 ahead of Patrick Mahomes and Deshaun Watson, though. That’s on then-Bears GM Ryan Pace.

And here’s the thing: Are we really sure that Mitchell Trubisky is bad?

This isn’t to say that he doesn’t bear some blame for his struggles in the Windy City. There’s far too much tape of missed reads and off-target throws to absolve him completely.

But it has become abundantly clear that Trubisky was set up to fail in Chicago by bad coaching—a fact that has led analysts like ESPN’s Ryan Clark to go so far as to offer public apologies for labeling Trubisky with the “B” word.

“Dear Mitchell Trubisky,” Clark said, via Fitzgerald, “I was wrong. I sat up here and said you were a bust. … Yet, sir, it was not your fault. It was Matthew Nagy’s fault.”

Also, for all that went wrong for Trubisky in Chicago, his numbers really weren’t that horrible. He completed 64 percent of his passes, threw 26 more touchdown passes than interceptions and generated a respectable passer rating of 87.2.

He also recorded eight more wins than losses as a starter for a Bears team that wasn’t exactly overflowing with offensive firepower and helped lead the franchise to two playoff trips in four seasons.

For his part, while the mea culpas are all well and good, that’s not what Trubisky wants. He wants to play.

“You’ve just got to believe like deep down that everything you’re working on is going to pay off eventually,” Trubisky said. “And they say the things you do in the dark will shine in the light someday when you get the opportunity. … Hopefully, when I get that next opportunity, I’ll be able to shine.”

There is more than one team that would be well-served to consider giving him that opportunity.

Here’s a reality check for all those Denver dreamers and Pittsburgh philosophers. Aaron Rodgers isn’t leaving Green Bay. Russell Wilson isn’t leaving Seattle. The former probably won’t demand a trade, and the Seahawks have expressed zero intent of dealing the latter. (And for what it’s worth, Wilson seems content to stay in Seattle.) The same goes for Kirk Cousins in Minnesota and Derek Carr in Las Vegas.

Yes, Matthew Stafford, Jared Goff and Carson Wentz were dealt last year. But that was much more exception than the rule. Nine times out of 10, NFL teams loathe parting with even a slightly above-average signal-caller. That’s why the annual “carousel” more often than not has a lot more speculation than relocation.

There are a few veteran quarterbacks legitimately on the market this year. Watson carries a staggering price tag and an uncertain future amid 22 civil lawsuits and 10 criminal complaints by women alleging sexual assault and misconduct.

The San Francisco 49ers mortgaged the future for Trey Lance, but even so, the team isn’t just going to give Jimmy Garoppolo away after he led San Fran to the NFC title game. The Colts are reportedly willing to give Carson Wentz away, but that tells you all you need to know about his 2021 campaign.

All those quarterbacks will cost significant salary cap resources and/or draft capital—a substantial amount for Garoppolo and a knee-buckling amount with Watson. And Watson is the only one of the trio measurably better than Trubisky.

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That’s right—if Trubisky had been playing for someone like Kyle Shanahan and not Nagy, it’s not a stretch to imagine a player as good as Garoppolo.

You cannot say with a straight face that Trubisky wouldn’t be an upgrade over Mason Rudolph and Dwayne Haskins in Pittsburgh. Or 2021 Ben Roethlisberger, for that matter.

The Steelers and Tampa Bay Buccaneers both have rosters comparable to (or better than) the 2018 Bears team that Trubisky was 11-3 as the starter with. They also have actual, honest-to-goodness head coaches.

The last thing Denver Broncos fans want is another underwhelming veteran signing. But Trubisky has a better arm than Teddy Bridgewater and a better head than Drew Lock.

And as would be the case for all these teams, rather than giving up draft picks for a fat salary, all they would be out is a (likely) below-market short-term contract for a quarterback who is only 27 with two postseason appearances and a Pro Bowl on his resume.

If you put Trubisky on a decent team and give him the chance to succeed, there’s a decent chance he’ll do just that.

Trubisky won’t be the first domino under center to fall in 2022. Or the second. Garoppolo will most likely be dealt. Wentz could be too. So could Warson if his ongoing legal issues (and the potential league discipline arising from them) are resolved. Jameis Winston will likely be viewed as the top free-agent quarterback despite throwing two interceptions during this article.

Trubisky and Marcus Mariota (a similar reclamation project, albeit a slightly older one) will be viewed by most as consolation prizes—as “settling.”

But more likely than not, after a year in the cold (sorry, that metaphor was just hanging there like a Buffalo icicle. OK, I’ll stop), Trubisky is going to be afforded that opportunity he covets. The chance to once again lead an NFL offense.

That alone is enough to make him one of the biggest winners of this year’s merry-go-round under center.
And it won’t be surprising if he also makes winners of the team that “settles” for him.