Jeff Hughes | November 6th, 2019

I had a conversation with my friend, referred to in these parts as [REDACTED].

I had specific questions. He gave me great answers.

These are transposed as best I could. (He has approved their publication.)

How does Matt Nagy keep this season from completely imploding?

He wins. He has to win some games, no matter what he’s getting from the quarterback. I can’t describe for you what it’s like in a losing building. Every day is just sad, man. I was with [REDACTED TEAM] and I remember the owner’s personal secretary telling me she cried herself to sleep the night before because we blew a game late. I felt awful.

They’ve got a good team. But losing wears down even the really good players. Everybody stops believing the effort is worth it.

Is Mitch Trubisky in the NFL five years from now?

I told you before the draft how much I liked Trubisky. And I wasn’t alone. And I haven’t seen a lot of his tape this season. But our pro personnel people say he’s playing scared. And when the problems go that deep mentally, it’s usually not something players recover from. Most of the times it happens to DBs or linemen and it’s pretty anonymous. When it happens to a quarterback, man, that’s hard.

One of my scouts told me everything needs to be perfect around Trubisky for him to produce. That’s not a winning strategy.

Everybody in Chicago speaks highly of him. So he’s a guy I can see settling into a backup role for years and being an asset to that room. He’s just not a front line NFL starter. So yea I think he’ll linger in the league.

What were your expectations for the Bears in 2019? What are they for 2020?

What have I always told you? We have no idea.

But I don’t understand how they’re running that offense and getting zero from the tight ends. And I’m not sure they have the right athleticism on their o-line to run it either. But I’ll be very surprised if they don’t sign a high profile veteran quarterback in the off-season. And if they sign the right one, they’ll be right back in the mix. Because supposedly the defense isn’t playing very well and they are still one of the five or six best in the game.