Bears quarterback Mitch Trubisky has endured his fair share of criticism this season. Most of it has been a result of his poor play, while an argument can be made that a small sliver of the negativity hurled his way is the result of a deeply rooted agenda against GM Ryan Pace and his 2017 draft-day trade.
At this point in Trubisky's career, it's hard to defend Pace's use of the second overall pick on the former UNC standout who started just 13 games as a collegiate quarterback. It's an even more impossible task when factoring the two quarterbacks Pace dismissed as options — Patrick Mahomes and DeShaun Watson.
Mahomes won the NFL MVP in 2018 and Watson is making a strong case to take home the hardware this year.
Stay in the game with the latest updates on your beloved Chicago sports teams! Sign up here for our All Access Daily newsletter.
Meanwhile, Trubisky is struggling to prove he even belongs in Chicago's starting lineup. It's been so bad, in fact, that the Bears have been pegged as one of the favorites to sign Colin Kaepernick despite the team showing no interest in him whatsoever. They aren't among the 11 confirmed clubs who will attend the former 49er's workout on Saturday in Atlanta.
Trubisky's 2019 season has gone about as bad as anyone could've feared. His 85.2 passer rating ranks among the worst starters in the league and his eight touchdown passes barely have him in the top 32 (he's currently 28th in the NFL in that category). His expected completion percentage, which measures a passer’s completion probability on every play and determines what a passer’s completion percentage is expected to be, is the ninth-worst among quarterbacks this year.
Simply put, he's been bad.
Anytime a former first-round quarterback is performing as poorly as Trubisky is, an inevitable conversation begins: Where does Trubisky rank among recent first-round quarterback busts?
NFL
According to Yahoo! Sports, Trubisky is the fourth-worst quarterback to be selected in the first round in the last decade:
There are a lot of angry fans in Chicago who would argue this pick is 30th considering they not only traded away four picks to move up one spot to select a third-team All-ACC quarterback with 12 career starts but also passed on Deshaun Watson and Patrick Mahomes in the process of doing so. And we’re open to that argument. But until the book officially closes on Trubisky’s time in Chicago, he stays ahead of the three guys who posted total zeroes for their teams.
To put this in perspective, Trubisky ranks lower than players like Christian Ponder, Jake Locker, Blake Bortles, Tim Tebow, Brandon Weeden and E.J. Manuel, to name a few.
The only first-round quarterbacks who were drafted in the last 10 years who rank below Trubisky are Josh Rosen, Johnny Manziel and Paxton Lynch; not exactly the company any quarterback wants to find themselves in.
It's a shocking turn of events for a player who was on an upward trajectory at the start of the season. Trubisky's rookie year was considered a success when factoring in the offensive coaching staff led by Dowell Loggains and the receiving corps headlined by Kendall Wright, and in his first season with Matt Nagy in 2018, Trubisky flashed the kind of dual-threat upside that made him a darkhorse MVP candidate entering 2019.
Instead of posting franchise-quarterback stats, Trubisky's on pace for 2,471 yards and 14 touchdowns. Granted, he missed nearly two weeks with a shoulder injury, but he hasn't passed for more than 253 yards in any game this year.
Is Trubisky one of the four worst first-round quarterbacks in the last decade? It's probably too early to say for sure, but there's been little evidence to suggest he isn't at this point.
Click here to download the new MyTeams App by NBC Sports! Receive comprehensive coverage of the Bears.