John DeFilippo wouldn’t have signed on to be the Chicago Bears quarterbacks coach if he didn’t know who his pupil would be and he didn’t think he could get that player to play at a high level.
Flip wouldn’t have had trouble finding a different job than the one he ended up taking and, according to Adam Jahns on the Hoge & Jahns Podcast, he did have other options.
But he didn’t take them. He signed on to coach Mitch Trubisky and any other quarterback they might add.
There were two schools of thought when Flip was announced as the team’s new quarterbacks coach.
1. The Bears were beefing up their coaching staff as much as possible for Mitch Trubisky
2. The Bears were going to use the knowledge of Flip and new offensive coordinator Bill Lazor to judge possible additions to the position.
While fans debated which thought process was right, both are probably true to an extent. But it certainly seems as if the Bears want to make Trubisky work before they go to the next option.
The argument for is simple, if far fetched.
If you were to take a Men In Black memory eraser to the 2019 season, you’d think Trubisky was a young quarterback with promise. If they can get the 2018 version back with slight improvements and a reliable running game, the Bears offense really could be in business.
The argument against is even simpler.
Trubisky’s 2019 season was so bad, the team was actually better with Chase Daniel at quarterback.
The Bears likely see Trubisky’s development as their wildcard to the 2020 season. During the end-of-season presser, Nagy said the key to Trubisky’s development was his ability to read defenses. If the light bulb clicks on there, Trubisky really could become a good quarterback. When he knew what he was seeing against simpler defenses, he had success. If he can ever get to the point where he figures out what complex defenses are going to do, he just might be OK.
The other options aren’t great. Although, as I wrote last week, quarterbacks like Andy Dalton and a healthy Alex Smith would certainly be enough for the Bears to get to the playoffs and maybe even make a run, but it’s hard to see Dalton or Smith being good enough to actually win a Super Bowl. Hell, that’s why the Chiefs drafted Mahomes in the first place.
The Bears surely believe Trubisky’s upside is still greater than any other option they have at the position and they’re still going to try to get that out of him. Trubisky will never be Mahomes, but maybe he can be as good as Jimmy Garoppolo and maybe Flip can get that out of him.
If they can’t, the team will break the glass and pull out the emergency option with the hopes that it’ll save their jobs.
