A countless number of electrons are inconvenienced every year in the form of “virtual ink https://www.thebearsfanshop.com/Taylor-Gabriel-Jersey ,” trying to assess the progress of new quarterbacks in the NFL. With the Chicago Bears on the verge of the playoffs, it’s only reasonable to wonder if Trubisky is an asset to the Bears or if he is going to be a piece that holds them back. While it probably is too early to really say, the reality is that Trubisky has probably displayed his overall talent fairly well.First, we need to separate “Trubisky the Player” from “Trubisky the Draft Pick.”There will be fans who always judge Mitchell Trubisky by the standard of “might have been,” and many those same fans will typically look at the player and the outcome in a vacuum. For example, they might say that Ryan Pace should have taken Patrick Mahomes instead of Mitchell Trubisky, and then they might point to the honestly stellar performance of Mahomes in Kansas City so far. That is fine, but it overlooks that there is no way to guarantee that Mahomes would have been Mahomes in Chicago (it also assumes that what Mahomes is doing is sustainable, but I frankly hope it is--let Kansas City tear up the AFC for the next decade for all I care). It’s not out of the question that Mahomes has benefitted from being inserted into an established offense where he is the only “new” piece, but it would also be disingenuous to suggest that he’s not making the most of the opportunities in front of him.Likewise, it is easy to look at the 2017 NFL Draft in a vacuum and say that if Pace would have waited, he still could have had one of Trubisky, Mahomes, or Watson in the draft and ended up with more draft picks. How much better would the Bears have been then?Simply put, we don’t know.More than that, it is naive to assume that things only would have gotten better. For example, if Pace had waited and drafted a developmental pass-rusher with that “missing” third-round pick, would he have had the nerve to go after Khalil Mack? Would the Raiders have taken the Bears’ offer in that case? If the Bears had drafted Watson, with his injury in 2017, how attractive is the team as a landing spot for Matt Nagy? There might even be a scenario where the Bears are left holding the bag after making an offer to professional backtracker Josh McDaniels. Likewise, they might (shudder) end up with John Fox for another year.Playing ‘what if’ games is fun up until a point, but it is also irrelevant after only a few iterations. Is there an argument to be made that Pace could have played the 2017 draft better? Sure. However, that argument is not directly relevant to Trubisky the Chicago Bear. Second, we need to establish Trubisky’s floor.Generally speaking, a given eight-game stretch from a quarterback’s career is pretty illustrative of his potential. The worst eight-game stretch is (unsurprisingly) the first eight games of his career. Without real offensive weapons and under a head coach who is currently unemployed, Trubisky had a sub-55% completion rating (106/193) and only managed 1237 yard, with 5 touchdowns and 4 interceptions. His passer rating? 74.56. That would have been 29th in the NFL last year, right behind Trubisky’s actual rank of 28th. That’s bad, but it’s worth comparing that to the net quarterback rating the top four quarterbacks (Mayfield, Darnold, Allen, and Rosen) taken in 2018 have assembled right out of the gate--a 75.25 (they have 58% completion rating and a 1:1 touchdown-to-interception ratio).In other words, Trubisky looked like a true rookie quarterback when he was a true rookie quarterback, but he did not look terrible. He did not look like a bust. He had some overthrows. He had some poor plays. He definitely made mistakes. However, as a first-year quarterback, he was typical.Third, we need a realistic assessment of his ceiling.Trubisky’s best stretch of eight consecutive games, with the best offensive weapons available in free agency and with a truly innovative head coach, is the run from the Seattle game (Week 2) through the first Detroit game (Week 10). In that time, he completed nearly 66% of his passes (167/255) for 2133 yards, and he managed 19 touchdowns with only 7 interceptions. His passer rating was 104.91 and he had 7.8 adjusted net yards per attempt. In that time he faced two of the worst pass defenses in football (using passer rating allowed) in the form of the Lions and Buccaneers; he also faced two of the best in the form of the Bills and the Jets. In fact Trey Burton Color Rush Jersey , the average rank of the passer ratings he faced in this time period was 16.4, or dead in the middle of the league.So, if everything goes right, that’s probably the most the Bears could hope for out of Trubisky. Even in this year of inflated ratings, that would make him a top ten quarterback, but not elite. He would be an asset but not a world-beater.Finally, we have to ask if Trubisky can pick a team up and engineer a win.Given that this season he only has 17 attempts when the team is trailing in the last four minutes, there is at least some reason to believe that Trubisky has not really carried the Bears to a victory all that often because the opportunities simply have not been there. The Patriots game was close to out of reach based on the score in the last eight minutes (although Trubisky did have a chance to narrow that lead on the earlier drive). Still, the Bears have largely been in the lead or out of position while Trubisky has played. Nonetheless, there is some reason for optimism, here.Across 23 games, Trubisky has two game-winning drives and exactly one fourth-quarter comeback. His one comeback was against Arizona, and it was not pretty. The Bears drove from their own 16 and barely managed to make it to field goal range, aided by an unnecessary roughness penalty. Despite a passer rating on this drive below 69, Trubisky technically did enough to win the game, but it left the Cardinals enough time for two more possessions, and if either had resulted in a field goal, the Bears would have been on the wrong end of the score. This is--at best--a mediocre data point.However, the same kind of honestly needs to be applied to a Bears’ loss. Against Miami, Trubisky did manage both a potential game-winning drive (to go up 28-21 in the fourth) and again in overtime. The first was immediately wiped out by a 75-yard touchdown pass and the second was undone by a missed Parkey field goal attempt.In other words, it’s inaccurate to say that Trubisky cannot pick a team up and string together the play he needs to win a football game. He has done it twice this season already. It is, however, accurate to say that he is proving to be an asset to the team, but not a game-breaker. So long as the defense and the head coach stay at their current level, that might be enough.More importantly, what the current structure of the Bears provides for is a perfect training platform. He can play meaningful football, he can take chances, and he can learn on the job. Along the way, he can develop the ability to manage a game (or more) while supported by a complete team around him. It’s hard to imagine a better scenario for a young qb. In what has felt like an extremely quick season, the Chicago Bears find themselves heading into their final four games of the 2018 regular season.The good news? They are currently (8-4) and still hold a (1.5) game lead in the NFC North.The bad news? They are coming off a tough loss and now head back home to face an (11-1) Los Angeles Rams team that has been near impossible to beat.Much like their Week 11 meeting with the Minnesota Vikings (that also happened to be flexed into Sunday Night Football), this will be yet another good measuring stick for a team that is looking to go from worst to first in the matter of one season.The playoffs are coming quick and currently, the Bears are positioned very well. Even with a loss on Sunday, that still wouldn’t change. But it could make things a little more tight.With a big game on Sunday and plenty of cautious optimistic still in the air, let’s dive into Week 14’s mailbag.One could argue that Trey Burton’s lack of production over the past three games stems from a change at quarterback and that could be right. But even so, in Mitchell Trubisky’s last game against the Minnesota Vikings, Burton had just one catch for nine yards.Over his last three games, he has five catches for 37 yards and no touchdowns. While it’s not ideal, it’s also key to remember that the Bears offense features new primary pass catchers each week. Although I’m sure the quarterback situation has not helped, Taylor Gabriel has also seen peaks and valleys throughout the season as well.Timothy T. Ludwig-USA TODAY SportsI really think that more than anything, the Bears have plenty of weapons on the offense, and from a week-to-week basis it will just feature different players. Don’t be surprised to see Burton’s production spike back up over the next few games. So the short answer here would be it’s the design of the system more than the players. It’s not likely something that will change any time soon in terms of sporadic production from skill players in this offense.This is a good question and one that is somewhat hard to answer right now. Even so Cody Parkey Jersey , I’m leaning toward not picking up Leonard Floyd’s fifth-year option at the moment.That’s not because I don’t think he’s a player worth keeping around, but the price of this past year’s option for an edge rusher was $14.2 million for the 2015 draft class. That number will jump up slightly when looking at what Floyd will cost, so it will likely be over $15 million.A few things to keep in mind with this option. It only guarantees players that figure IF they get injured. So, it’s possible that they could opt to exercise that option and then pull it before next year’s free agency, if he’s healthy. The problem? 2018 would be the first year that he hasn’t finished the year on injured reserve, which makes picking up his option even more risky.If I were general manager Ryan Pace, I’d swallow my pride and roll the dice on Floyd by declining the option. Let him play out the final year of his rookie deal and assess the situation from there. He’s a valuable member of the defense, but heading into the final four games of the season, he has just two sacks. That doesn’t mean he’s been bad by any means, but you also don’t pay a non-sack artists that type of money, even for one season. Especially when you’ll likely have to work out some sort of team-friendly deal with Aaron Lynch in the coming months and have Khalil Mack making an average of $23.5 million-per-year.If the Bears finish the season on a (1-3) skid, it’s likely they’ll still make the playoffs. The problem? They’d likely be playing on the road to open up the wild card round and coming off a (1-4) stretch. That’s not exactly ideal on multiple accounts.I’d be very surprised if a (9-7) record won the Bears the division, which means they’d either be on the road against the Vikings or the winner of the NFC East (likely the Dallas Cowboys). That wouldn’t be a death sentence by any means, but like most teams, the Bears have played much better at home.My best guess is that one win in their final four games likely gets them the sixth seed and they would play Minnesota in back-to-back weekends on the road. Another situation the Bears simply don’t want to be in.With all of that being said, I still think it’s more than realistic to expect a (10-6) finish and a home playoff game. Whether or not that’s hosting the Vikings is a different story, but it would be a much more ideal scenario for them heading into the playoffs.I absolutely think that Jordan Howard is playing in his last few games with the Bears. I’m sure that some may still disagree, but I simply don’t feel like Howard is a good fit for this offense and have had that feeling dating back to March.I think it’s becoming pretty evident that the light isn’t just going to click on for this team’s current running game. I also don’t think all of the struggles in the running game have been on Howard, but I do think they could benefit from having a more athletic back.As far as potential replacements go, I would assume that a well-priced free agent and/or a mid round draft pick would do the trick. I’m not sure Le’Veon Bell makes a ton of sense, purely based on financial ramifications.They could choose to sign a more affordable free agent like Tevin Coleman or even a guy like Mark Ingram, but only time will tell on that. There are two things I’m pretty confident in: Howard being dealt this off-season and Bell not being a Bear.I wouldn’t expect Trubisky’s best game on Sunday night. That is for sure. Whether that’s rust, the Rams defense getting better with Aqib Talib back or even the big stage of Sunday Night Football.With that being said, I do think that Trubisky’s health shouldn’t be a concern moving forward. Much like Allen Robinson and Mack a few weeks back, the Bears chose to play it safe, which means the second-year quarterback should be as close to 100% as one could be coming off an injury.The Rams have an excellent front seven. So the Bears will have their hands full, especially on the interior. Unlike Chase Daniel, Trubisky’s athleticism should play a big role on Sunday night’s game and should allow him to escape some of the pressure Wade Phillips and his unit will bring.The same as it did heading into the season. I’d be shocked if he was back next year. He’s been a healthy scratch more than he’s played and general manager Ryan Pace made it pretty evident they had little faith left when they choose to spend big resources on a trio of receivers this past off-season.It’s unfortunate for Kevin White, but at this point it’s time for the Bears to cut bait and move on.I’d still be surprised to see Vic Fangio actually land a head coaching job in the NFL, personally.Over the past few years, I have spoken with a few people that have all echo’ed the same thing. While Fangio is a very good coordinator, his personality and age don’t exactly make him a sexy head coaching candidate. Couple that with the league wanting offensive minded candidates and it doesn’t bode very well for him, period.By the off-chance he does land one of the many jobs that will be upcoming (good for him if he does), I’d assume that Todd Bowles and even Mike Pettine (pending his future in Green Bay) would be two primary candidates that have relationships with head coach Matt Nagy.Pettine was someone who was a prime candidate this past off-season if Fangio was not retained and it’s been well documented the type of relationship Bowles and Nagy have. The good news? The Bears have a ton of talent on the defensive side of the ball, even if Fangio leaves, either one of these two names should be able to come in and find similar results. I’d be very surprised if Trubisky didn’t play on Sunday night.At least the way it was explained to me and how Nagy has approached it during his press conferences is that they’ve had a plan all along. That plan has been that they’d rather be overly cautious (sitting him at 80-90% against the Giants) than rush him back.I do believe he could have played in Week 13 with a full week of practice, but the Bears made the decision much earlier that they wouldn’t even let him throw the ball until this past Friday. It’s a decision many will question and that’s totally understandable but even so, the plan appears to always have been having him back for this Sunday night.