Mitch Trubisky's tenure with the Bears was a mixed bag.
He knows that. And he knows he has his detractors because of it.
But much of the angst he felt in Chicago was out of his control. The Bears selected him with the second pick in the 2017 NFL Draft, ahead of Patrick Mahomes and Deshaun Watson, so the fans there were always going to compare him to those two. And when he didn't measure up to those lofty standards, things got tough. Add in a coaching change and everything else that goes with it, and Trubisky's first four years weren't what one might typically expect from a pick of his pedigree.
But he also seems to know the only thing he can do about it in his new role is to go out and win. Do that, and the detractors will have no more ammunition.
"You’re always trying to do that," Trubisky said Wednesday of quieting his critics. "There are always going to be doubters. You’re always just trying to believe in yourself and your teammates."
His teammates in this case are now the Steelers. The previous day, Mike Tomlin officially named Trubisky the Steelers' starting quarterback going into the 2022 season, which kicks off for team Sunday in Cincinnati against the Bengals.
And Trubisky, 28, feels he's a much better quarterback now than he was in his days with the Bears.
"I would say processing and getting the ball out quicker," Trubisky said on how he has improved. "Accuracy and processing."
James Daniels, who played with Trubisky in his final four seasons with the Bears, said it goes beyond that.
Trubisky spent the 2021 season with the Bills, so he and Daniels didn't see each other for that year. But when Daniels did see Trubisky again in the Steelers locker room, he saw a different player.
"I’d say the biggest thing is just maturity," Daniels said. "You can tell, he’s an older player, so he’s done more. That’s the biggest thing. He just feels older to me. It was just a year since I last saw him. It’s weird. But he seems a lot more mature, so much older."
And that's important for a quarterback.
"Yes," Daniels said. "At the quarterback position, maturity is a big thing. Even though it had only been a year, he looks so much better. He has so much more control of our offense. It just feels different."
Accuracy and processing are often about confidence. As a quarterback who has been through more in his career, Trubisky does have an air of confidence about him.
If a quarterback isn't confident about what he's seeing, it's going to affect everything.
Those were two of the things his critics said Trubisky was lacking in his time in Chicago. The processing part of things was to be expected. After all, Trubisky had been just a one-year starter at North Carolina before the Bears took him with the second pick in the draft in 2017.
He was largely learning to play quarterback on the job. Now, with 50 career starts under his belt -- and a year watching Josh Allen last season in Buffalo as the Bills backup -- he feels he's in a much different place than he was three or four years ago.
"100 percent," Trubisky said.
As for the accuracy issues that plagued him at times in Chicago. He completed just 59.4 percent of his passes in his rookie season, but that jumped to 66.6 percent in his second season, when he earned a Pro Bowl nod. He hasn't been under a 63.2 percent completion percentage in any season since, but the questions about his accuracy remain.
How does a quarterback improve his accuracy?
"Just keep throwing. Keep throwing," Trubisky said.
Trubisky got to do a lot of that over the past six months with the Steelers, who signed him to a two-year contract as a free agent. He held off first-round pick Kenny Pickett and veteran Mason Rudolph to win the Steelers' starting job.
Now, instead of being compared to Mahomes and Watson, Trubisky will be compared by Steelers fans to Ben Roethlisberger, the man he's replacing.
That's no easy task, either.
"Oh my God! Is it easy for any of our quarterbacks?," Cam Heyward said. "Ben had to look up to a Terry Bradshaw, even Kordell Stewart. Man, Ben, he almost broke every record here. Some of these guys have been teammates with Ben, have had success with Ben. It’s not easy. You just hope players are receptive to that and understand that. Mitch doesn’t have to fill those shoes. Mitch doesn’t have to be the 'unquestioned leader' with everything riding on his shoulders.
"Our goal is to alleviate that as a defense and let them find their way through it. It’s not just all going to be solved in one game. But we want to provide an atmosphere where we let Mitch be Mitch."
That was something that Trubisky wasn't necessary afforded in Chicago. He was constantly compared by the fanbase to Patrick Mahomes and Deshaun Watson, the two quarterbacks selected after him in the 2017 draft. The difference was that the Chiefs and Texans both traded up to acquire that duo. They were going to better situations.
Trubisky went to a Bears team that went 3-13 the year before he arrived.
"Definitely," Daniels said when asked if he heard those comparisons. "You’ve also got to look at as people were in better situations, more stable situations. That’s a lot more helpful to be in a stable situation than like what we had in Chicago."
Trubisky feels this is the perfect spot for him to resurrect his career.
In wide receivers Diontae Johnson, Chase Claypool and George Pickens, running back Najee Harris and tight end Pat Freiermuth, the Steelers have a young and talented group of skill position players. Trubisky will be the elder statesman of that group and the trigger man for the offense.
"We’re very talented here," he said. "That’s one of the reasons I wanted to come here. I’m excited about the skill players we have. I’m excited to see what this offense can be. We’ve got a lot of talent. We’re a young team. There’s a lot we’re going to have to pull together."
How quickly they can do that will largely determine the trajectory of this team.
Oddsmakers already list Trubisky as one of the quarterbacks likely to be replaced at some point during the season. National pundits are wondering when Tomlin will pull Trubisky and turn to Pickett.
After all, he's the first quarterback the Steelers selected in the first round of the draft since taking Roethlisberger in 2004.
But Trubisky isn't concerned with those things.
"I just worry about what I can control and worrying about what’s best for the Pittsburgh Steelers and winning football games," he said.
Do that, and the rest will take care of itself.
If the team stumbles, Trubisky knows there will be pressure to turn to Pickett. But he's not going to spend the season looking over his shoulder. He's just going to play. After all, he went with the second-overall pick in 2017 for a reason. He's got talent. He has the mobility teams look for in today's NFL. And he now has the experience he lacked in his first stop.
"You always lean on your past experiences," Trubisky said. "It’s the quarterback position. Only one can go out there. There’s competition all the time."
