Chicago Bears GM Ryan Pace and Head Coach Matt Nagy held a press conference last Friday and opened up for questions after some early season moves. With the trade for Nick Foles now complete, the obvious question was, and still is, what’s the plan for Trubisky now that another QB is in town? Will the Bears be picking up his 5th year option?
Ryan Pace says the Bears won't comment on picking up Mitch Trubisky's fifth-year option. Re-iterates team has until May to make a decision.
— JJ Stankevitz (@JJStankevitz) April 3, 2020
Once again Ryan Pace was very non-committal, and for good reason. At this point, it doesn’t make a lot of sense for Pace to pull the trigger on it. Those options are usually in place to keep control of a, you know, good player. Trubisky hasn’t proven yet that he falls into that category.
If the Bears were to pick up this option, it would come at a price tag of about $24 million according to many estimates. Where does that land him among other QBs? A lot of the salaries jump again in 2021, but to not complicate things, let’s look at what some others are going to be making for the 2020 season:
- Jared Goff – $36M
- Dak Prescott – $31.5M
- Russell Wilson – $31M
- Jimmy Garoppolo – $26.6M
- Phillip Rivers – $25M
- Tom Brady – $25M
- Ben Roethlisberger – $23.7M
- Drew Brees – $23.6M
- Ryan Tannehill – $22.5M
- Aaron Rodgers – $21.6M
The list goes on. The point is… Mitchell Trubisky is not worth a $24M price tag.
If you look at some recent deals this off-season for a hot commodity QBs like Teddy Bridgewater making $14M this upcoming season, followed by $23M and $26M the following seasons, it’s an even bigger no-brainer to pass on the 5th year Trubisky option. Keep in mind Bridgewater is only about 2 years older than Trubisky, too. Maybe he has an amazing season this year, but even then, $24M would still seem high based on his resume.
The Bears are better off allowing him to test free agency. I can’t see teams knocking down his door even if he has one good season. And at this point, that’s a big IF. If they are knocking down his door, it won’t be with a briefcase that has enough money to pay Trubisky over $24M per year. The Bears could ultimately sign him to a new deal in free agency, but at a lesser price tag than the option would carry. I think Trubisky knows that his play has been less than ideal, and I don’t believe there would necessarily be bad blood if he did make it to free agency. He knows he’s got a lot to prove.
Pace has got till May 4th to decide the fate of his 1st round QB. Between that and the potential end of the COVID-19 lockdown (fingers crossed), Bears fans have a lot to look forward to over the next month. Stay tuned.
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