One of the biggest curveballs in the first round of the draft came when the Bears traded up to the second overall pick in order to select quarterback Mitchell Trubisky.
49ers General Manager John Lynch traded the pick to the Bears and wondered whether the Bears would take defensive tackle Solomon Thomas (who ultimately went third to the Niners), which made sense because there weren’t too many people linking the Bears with Trubisky. It helped that the team’s trip to Chapel Hill to work out Trubisky went down with plenty of cloak and dagger employed.
Dan Wiederer of Chicago Tribune got the details of the trip, including a note that Trubisky made a dinner reservation for the group under the name James McMahon. That reference to Bears history struck General Manager Ryan Pace as a “cool” move and Pace also used some misdirection during a workout on an intramural field on the North Carolina campus.
Someone asked if Pace and company were from the Cowboys and Pace said they were and then didn’t dispute the questioner’s guess that head coach John Fox was Paul Pasqualoni. It’s good luck for Pace and company that the man wasn’t aware Pasqualoni hasn’t coached for the Cowboys since 2010. Pace’s biggest worry was that fans who spotted Fox, who used to coach the Panthers, at the airport might put pictures on social media that spilled the beans on their visit.
That doesn’t seem to have happened and the Bears obviously liked what they saw and learned from Trubisky, even if Wiederer’s consistently entertaining and engaging story makes it clear he had to combat with a talkative Fox over steaks and red wine at that aforementioned dinner. If he can do as well against NFL defenses, the Bears will have the quarterback spot locked down for a while.