The Bears spoke with their actions, when they decided not to pick up the fifth-year option on quarterback Mitchell Trubisky.
But General Manager Ryan Pace said the team hasn’t given up on their former first-rounder, and they hope he’s able to bounce back and earn a contract down the road the way cornerback Kyle Fuller did.
“We’ve always had the approach that we’re honest and we’re truthful with our players and our staff, and we move on and we get to work, . . . ” Pace said on WSCR-AM, via the Chicago Sun-Times. “Mitch gets it. Everyone’s competing. Everyone’s focused on better results. That’s the entire team. That starts with me and everybody.
“We believe in Mitch — that doesn’t change. . . . I think you can point to Kyle Fuller as a great example of a player that didn’t get his option exercised. I think we would say it worked out well for him and for us.”
After the Bears didn’t pick up Fuller’s option in 2017, he played out his deal, they put the transition tag on him, and then matched the Packers’ four-year, $56 million deal.
Picking up Trubisky’s option would have put them on the hook for $24.8 million in 2021 — for a guy who will be competing for his job against Nick Foles. That’s obviously too high of a price to pay — despite the fact Pace once gave up four things to move up one spot to draft Trubisky instead of Patrick Mahomes or Deshaun Watson.
So while dangling Fuller’s eventual riches as a possibility, it’s hard to see that repeating itself, or even Trubisky winning the starting job in a competition against a former Super Bowl MVP who was brought in specifically because he’s familiar with the offensive system.