Mitch Trubisky made his first ever start for the Chicago Bears in Week 5 against the Minnesota Vikings and immediately after that game his offensive coordinator, Dowell Loggains, got a call from former Bears quarterback Jay Cutler.

Trubisky had what looked to be a surefire touchdown on a screen pass to Benny Cunningham, but the timing was off, forcing Trubisky to get sacked. Cutler saw the play and offered up some advice to Loggains.

“Cutler called me and said, ‘Hey, my first year I threw an interception in Seattle. I threw a pick and (Mike) Shanahan told me, ‘Look, this is one of the hardest things. No one talks about. It’s a very underestimated skill. As a rookie, you have to work on all the timing. Time it up with the guard and the back. How to manipulate the ball,’” Loggains said, via the Chicago Tribune's Brad Biggs. “I’m watching (Carson) Wentz from Year 1 to Year 2 and Wentz throws a touchdown on a screen pass where he’s got both guys rushing and he just splits it in between them and those are plays he wasn’t making last year. Those are plays you keep working on. You think, it’s a screen pass, it’s easy. It’s not. It’s getting the feel of it. Trusting the timing of it and all those things, where the back is going to be and to be able to change your arm angle."

In Chicago's Christmas Eve victory over the Cleveland Browns it was evident Trubisky had learned from his mistakes on screen passes. He was able to find Cunningham twice on screen passes for a gain of 62 yards. Cunningham's biggest gain came on a 40-yard catch and run. After the game the rookie quarterback talked about how he's improved in that area.

“We rep those over and over again so we get that timing down and it’s all about, for me, just not giving the screen away with my footwork and looking in the right direction so we pull guys away and then keeping the ball as long as I can to draw the D-line to create an open lane for Benny to draw the D-line away from them,” Trubisky said, via Biggs. “It comes down to execution. That’s what it was. Great execution by the guys up front. Benny did a great job catching the ball and run after the catch. That’s what you want to see out of your screen game.”

Want to keep up with the Bears during the regular season? Take a second to sign up for our FREE Bears newsletter! Take a second to sign up for our FREE Bears newsletter!

Can Cutler be credited for completely changing around Chicago's screen game? Likely not, but it is interesting to see he and Loggains still communicate with each other. If that led to Trubisky improving as a quarterback then all Bears fans can, at least for one day, feel good about Cutler.