Cruz on Trubisky
From Dan Wiederer’s piece in the Trib, wrapping up Family Fest:
As for Mitch Trubisky? The Bears’ top draft pick oversaw an 11-play, 60-yard field goal drive. Trubisky threw five passes and completed three, the longest a 23-yard bullet over-the-middle to fellow rookie Tanner Gentry.
Cruz stressed the growth he’s seeing in the young quarterback.
“It’s his eagerness to learn,” Cruz said. “He’s not above the game. He doesn’t feel he’s entitled to anything because he was drafted so high. He’s eager, young and bright-eyed and ready to learn.”
There is a very interesting scenario about to play out for the Bears. Everyone knows – including Mike Glennon – that Trubisky is going to be the Bears starting quarterback very, very soon. How will this influence Glennon’s play? Remember, this is a kid who has proven nothing in the sport. He’s got one mediocre season on his resume and eleven passes in the two seasons since. Is he going to be willing to take the chances a quarterback needs to take to be successful? Or is he going to take the Brian Hoyer conservative approach, play to a good stat line and try to parlay that into a camp opportunity somewhere next summer?
The answer to that question will determine whether these Glennon games – of which I hope there are very few – are entertaining or not.
New Shirt!
It’s right over there on the right rail. (Or down below on mobile.) And it’s cool. Buy one.
New Kicker?
The most surprising thing I’m hearing from Bourbonnais? Utah kicker Andy Phillips is turning some heads and may actually press Connor Barth for the starting gig. If I was Barth, I’d make my kicks in the fake games. From the legendary Adam Jahns of the Chicago Sun-Times:
But Phillips earned the nickname “Automatic Andy” for a reason at Utah. His background makes him even more compelling.
Rodgers has been impressed by Phillips’ diligence.
“He’s always on his iPad,” Rodgers said. “He’s always looking at his stuff from OTAs, from minicamp, the days he did good, the things he can improve on. He tried a new plant shoe, a new kicking shoe. He’s trying to find that right combination.
“And that’s different than a lot of rookies. Most rookies come into camp, and they’re kind of staring at the vets: ‘What are they doing? OK, let me do that.’
“[Andy] has a little bit of his own routine. He’s a competitive guy. He’s obviously athletic. He’s done some athletic things over the course of his career. He’s done a good job so far.”
Quick Hits
- Dan Wiederer profiles Zach Miller’s efforts to inspire a 9 year-old dealing with cancer. Beautiful story.
- Chris Boden of CSN Chicago points out what many observers have pointed out thus far in camp: Tarik Cohen is going to be a match-up nightmare for opposing defenses.
- John “Moon” Mullin hasn’t tweeted or posted to CSN’s site since the end of May. Does anybody know why? Is he sick or did he get fired?
TweetWreck
Cutler gets the gunslinger moniker for good reason but this team ran a West Coast O despite having B-Marshall, Alshon Jeffrey and Martellus
— Ian Wharton (@NFLFilmStudy) August 6, 2017
This fella Ian Wharton is referring to 2015, while Cutler played for Gase. Problem here? Brandon Marshall wasn’t on that team. A tweet earlier he mentioned that he was watching film. How do you not notice somebody isn’t on the team? Why Twitter can drive a person to madness.
