(670 The Score) When we last watched Bears quarterback Mitchell Trubisky do anything that matters, it was a performance perfectly reflecting our already conflicted and at times self-contradictory assessments of his development thus far. His playoff game against the Eagles last January was something more than indicated by final numbers, a pedestrian-at-best effort that was supposed to have been redeemed by a pair of late and glorious scoring drives, the coming of age when it mattered most.
Except all that bounced away, and we were left with months of that echo growing fainter.
Now the noise is back, at an energetic Bears training camp bursting at the seams with promise while delivering the same mixed messages to us about whether this quarterback is on track to becoming a star or not. We know Trubisky backed into the Pro Bowl, but nobody sees that as proper validation of his current standing. At every level of those observing him -- from the most casual fans to the most respected national scouts and analysts -- there are opinions spanning from one end of the spectrum to the other. As always, one can see what one wants in him.
So it goes as summer practices wind down and exhibition games begin. Trubisky has made some nice throws and thrown some interceptions and when queried about his progress has offered a perfunctory word salad of banalities, bromides and football idioms that do nothing to help us figure out where he is. He's not going to play in these games either, so all we can do is continue to trust that his coach is bringing him along as he pledged to do.
Matt Nagy's tone may give us some indication of where Trubisky stands, as does the prevailing wisdom out of Bourbonnais that any offensive struggles are due not to their shortcomings but to the dominance of the Bears defense. It has been a theme in explaining the frequency of mistakes, and Nagy on Monday continued on it when asked about Trubisky.
"Every year we go through this, the offense gets frustrated because the defense sees the same plays over and over again," Nagy said. "That's where we're at right now.
"You're going to see some balls in here where there's interceptions. I said that last year. We don't get flustered over that. We're testing some things out. That's your guys' job (the media) to be critical of him and me. We know how to balance that."
Nagy also did something that sounded a bit odd to me, describing a non-contact passing drill as tilted in favor of the defense.
"Seven-on-seven, there's no threat of the run, so you're allowed to play a little bit deeper in coverage and know that we're going to throw it," Nagy said. "So we forced some balls in there. I think reining him back in once the season comes to just taking what they give you always with that mentality of trying to go deep when you can (is the best approach)."
Truth is that an NFL quarterback should own seven-on-sevens, and I had heretofore only heard coaches use the nature of that kind of practice to protect the defense, excusing what looked like shoddy coverage on too-easy completions by shrugging it off to the circumstances. With no threat of a hit, the flag football offense is expected to operate with abandon. That's the point. But not so in this case, it seems.
Nagy understands the attention on a now third-year player for whom the general manager traded multiple picks to grab a spot higher than many believed necessary, and keeping him in a controlled environment allows him to micromanage this process, however well it may be proceeding. Trubisky 3.0 will be released only when the lights go back on, and until then we are told after the fact what matters in what we're allowed to observe.
"We know what's real and what's not real, and that's what we do," Nagy said.
That's the kind of competitive confidence that edges right up to arrogance, and that's not necessarily a bad thing. A coach of the year coming off a 12-4 season should sound like that. But it just keeps everybody else in the dark regarding the growth of the most important player on the team.
We'll all get to know what's real in a month.
Dan Bernstein is a co-host of 670 The Score's Bernstein & McKnight Show in midday. You can follow him on Twitter @Dan_Bernstein.
