Mitchell Trubisky himself said he couldn’t believe it when the Bears drafted him No. 2 overall in Thursday’s NFL Draft. Well, the pick was somewhat of a surprise to Bears head coach John Fox as well.
According to a report by ESPN’s Chris Mortensen, Bears general manager Ryan Pace had not informed Fox of the decision to draft the North Carolina quarterback until a couple hours before the draft.
Wow. Per @mortreport, even @ChicagoBears coach John Fox didn’t know about plan to draft QB Mitchell Trubisky until a couple hours before.
— Kevin Seifert (@SeifertESPN) April 28, 2017
Now, why did Pace do that? It’s possible he was just trying to prevent a draft night leak, although San Francisco still managed to use their leverage when trading the No. 2 pick to Chicago to get three middle-round picks in addition to the Bears’ No. 3 pick. Because the 49ers weren’t interested in drafting Trubisky, they basically got those three extra picks for nothing and still got the guy they wanted, Stanford DE Solomon Thomas, at No. 3.
But maybe Pace’s decision signals to some bigger problems in the Bears organization. Fox is just 9-23 through two seasons in Chicago, and in an official video tweeted out by the Bears after they made the trade with the 49ers and chose Trubisky, Pace said:
“No. 1 quarterback for me. No. 1 quarterback for Josh. No. 1 quarterback for Mark. Dowell’s No. 1 quarterback. Overall scout’s No. 1 quarterback. Area scout’s No. 1 quarterback. That’s conviction on a quarterback.”
The guys Pace mentions by first name are director of player personnel Josh Lucas, director of college scouting Mark Sadkowski and offensive coordinator Dowell Loggains.
No mention of head coach John Fox.
From inside the Draft room
to the congratulatory phone call,
you don't get more behind-the-scenes access than this.#NFLDraft #BearsDraft pic.twitter.com/B7dDZF0Nmz— Chicago Bears (@ChicagoBears) April 28, 2017
Maybe Pace simply forgot to mention Fox. Or maybe Fox still really likes Trubisky but just didn’t consider him his No. 1 quarterback. You can only read between the lines so much.
But the fact that Fox was left out of the Bears’ draft plans and then the franchise potentially picked a player he wasn’t interested in isn’t such a great sign when many people already see him entering the 2017 season on the hot seat.