(670 The Score) The Bears’ season-ending press conference with team brass Wednesday morning didn’t inspire any confidence in the fan base moving forward.
Whether it was intentional or unintentional, the franchise’s leaders also placed a great deal of blame on quarterback Mitchell Trubisky for the Bears’ struggles as they’ve posted back-to-back 8-8 seasons. At various times as chairman George McCaskey, president Ted Phillips, general manager Ryan Pace and coach Matt Nagy spoke, they referenced – sometimes unprompted – a need to get much better play out of the quarterback position.
“They essentially pointed the finger at the lack of success at their quarterback,” Score morning host David Haugh said in a transition segment Thursday. “They threw Mitch Trubisky under the bus yesterday, if anybody was paying attention. I’m sure he was and his agent was. Not that that matters, and that’s kind of a secondary point to all the other nonsense that was uttered, but yesterday was not a good day for Mitch. I think it underscores what we have been saying – yeah, you can make a case for bringing him back as a bridge guy or this or that, but I think after yesterday, this is over. That’s a relationship that has ended.”
Trubisky is set to be a free agent this offseason. Beyond his inconsistent play and struggles against elite competition, why might the Bears have been willing to point the finger at him after defending him for so long? Fellow Score morning host Mike Mulligan had a theory, noting Trubisky’s postgame comments after Chicago was eliminated from the playoffs with a 21-9 loss at New Orleans on Sunday in the wild-card round.
“Mitch committed the mortal sin – he questioned the culture,” Mulligan said.
Trubisky’s comments Sunday had raised some eyebrows.
"There’s a lot of things we need to do better, a lot of things we need to change,” Trubisky had said. “And a lot of it is the culture and what we accept and what we don’t."