Laurence Holmes on the Trubisky deal

College football and the NFL Draft

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wab
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KhalilSackDaddy wrote:
wab wrote:
cblaz11 wrote:Heard Shanahan state in an interview that there were numerous people trying to move up to the 2nd pick...that’s the first I heard someone from the 49ers comment.
John Lynch said it too. He said the Bears wanted to move up but that Pace wouldn't tell him who they were taking. Lynch said he was shocked when they took Mitch because he would have sworn they were taking Thomas.
Chicago and teams behind Chicago also stated they were taking calls for trades that went quite after the Bears drafted Mitch. You also had it as common knowledge that Cle was willing to move up as high as thee 2nd spot for a qb also.

So you have SF, Cle, Chi and the teams behind Chi all stating teams were looking to move up.
Still to this day I believe that the Niners were going to take Mitch at #3 and the Bears screwed them.
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KhalilSackDaddy
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wab wrote:
KhalilSackDaddy wrote:
wab wrote:
cblaz11 wrote:Heard Shanahan state in an interview that there were numerous people trying to move up to the 2nd pick...that’s the first I heard someone from the 49ers comment.
John Lynch said it too. He said the Bears wanted to move up but that Pace wouldn't tell him who they were taking. Lynch said he was shocked when they took Mitch because he would have sworn they were taking Thomas.
Chicago and teams behind Chicago also stated they were taking calls for trades that went quite after the Bears drafted Mitch. You also had it as common knowledge that Cle was willing to move up as high as thee 2nd spot for a qb also.

So you have SF, Cle, Chi and the teams behind Chi all stating teams were looking to move up.
Still to this day I believe that the Niners were going to take Mitch at #3 and the Bears screwed them.
That actually makes 100% sense. If they really thought the Bears were going to take Thomas, and that's who SF took, then they wouldn't have been willing to risk that for a few extra picks. They said their real target was always Foster, but they didn't take him at 3. If Foster was the target they would have taken a better trade to drop back a little farther, or just drafted Foster at 3.
I think you are dead on and SF was likely planning on taking Mitch and just hoping to get a few other picks out of Chicago by making them think Lynch wanted the def player the Bears wanted. Bears not only got their guy, but froze out both Cleveland and SF from getting the their qb for a very small sum of 3 mid round picks.
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wab
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KhalilSackDaddy wrote:
wab wrote:
KhalilSackDaddy wrote:
wab wrote:
cblaz11 wrote:Heard Shanahan state in an interview that there were numerous people trying to move up to the 2nd pick...that’s the first I heard someone from the 49ers comment.
John Lynch said it too. He said the Bears wanted to move up but that Pace wouldn't tell him who they were taking. Lynch said he was shocked when they took Mitch because he would have sworn they were taking Thomas.
Chicago and teams behind Chicago also stated they were taking calls for trades that went quite after the Bears drafted Mitch. You also had it as common knowledge that Cle was willing to move up as high as thee 2nd spot for a qb also.

So you have SF, Cle, Chi and the teams behind Chi all stating teams were looking to move up.
Still to this day I believe that the Niners were going to take Mitch at #3 and the Bears screwed them.
That actually makes 100% sense. If they really thought the Bears were going to take Thomas, and that's who SF took, then they wouldn't have been willing to risk that for a few extra picks. They said their real target was always Foster, but they didn't take him at 3. If Foster was the target they would have taken a better trade to drop back a little farther, or just drafted Foster at 3.
I think you are dead on and SF was likely planning on taking Mitch and just hoping to get a few other picks out of Chicago by making them think Lynch wanted the def player the Bears wanted. Bears not only got their guy, but froze out both Cleveland and SF from getting the their qb for a very small sum of 3 mid round picks.
Yep. If Foster was the real target they would have taken him at 3.

Lynch was convinced that they were taking Thomas so he thought he'd squeeze a couple of picks out of the Bears, still get Mitch and then get Foster later (as they did). So Pace pulled one over on them, they panicked and took Thomas because of his perceived value, and missed out on drafting a QB all together. All told, they turned the trade into 6 players:

Solomon Thomas - 4 career sacks...basically a bust at this point
Reuben Foster - cut, suspended, and on his way out of the NFL
Fred Warner - decent player
Adrian Colbert - special teams level player
Dante Pettis - has some potential
D.J. Reed - had like one good game as a returner

There's no way I'll ever be convinced Mitch would have been there at #3 for the Bears.
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KhalilSackDaddy
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There is no way Mitch is there at 3. Someone was going to move up to grab him. I think there is a good shot that KC/Hou and Cle were all looking to move up, to get Mitch. Now was that at 2, or 3 or behind there is never going to be a way to tell, but I honestly believe at least Cleveland was willing to move up to 2. And Multiple we know were willing to trade w/Chicago.
Now will that have been the right move 10 years from now, maybe, maybe not. but no doubt multiple teams thought Mitch was the #1 qb; I didn't, but I'm not a GM and my opinion really doens't mean much.
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Z Bear
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People will always question this move unless Trubisky has a noticeably better career than Watson and Mahomes. The fact that Trubisky was the least experienced of the three and the Bears needed a QB immediately further confounds the issue. I think Trubisky will end up being a fine QB, but the fact that Pace traded away a lot to move up one spot is very suspect when you still had all 3 QBs on board. Can anyone really say the Bears would be any worse off this year with Watson or Mahomes as the starter? Both are running very similar offenses this year and doing well. Hindsight is always 20/20, but it is looking like Mahomes > Trubisky > Watson at this point.
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Z Bear wrote:People will always question this move unless Trubisky has a noticeably better career than Watson and Mahomes. The fact that Trubisky was the least experienced of the three and the Bears needed a QB immediately further confounds the issue. I think Trubisky will end up being a fine QB, but the fact that Pace traded away a lot to move up one spot is very suspect when you still had all 3 QBs on board. Can anyone really say the Bears would be any worse off this year with Watson or Mahomes as the starter? Both are running very similar offenses this year and doing well. Hindsight is always 20/20, but it is looking like Mahomes > Trubisky > Watson at this point.
But the Bears didn't need a QB immediately considering they just signed Longneck Gingerderp to a fat deal like 3 weeks before the draft.

The general consensus on all three leading up to the draft was:
Watson was the most ready, but had arm limitations.
Mahomes had the most physical gifts, but had garbage mechanics and a weird throwing motion.
Trubisky had the most raw talent, but lacked experience.

There is a very real reason that Trubisky was considered the #1 QB in the class.
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They signed Glennon to a 1 year deal essentially since they had the out in year 2 for cheap. You do not try to solve the QB issue with a one year contact. The writing was on the wall the Bears were taking a QB but no one really noticed it. I agree wholeheartedly with your assessment of QBs, as a South Carolina fan I was actually scared shitless I was going to have to cheer for a Clemson QB for the next 5-10 years! I have no problem the Bears selected Trubisky, but I am firmly in the camp it was a mistake to move up to get him.


Additionally... if you do not need a QC immediately, why would you trade up to get one when you had several holes to fill?
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I think your theory of the 49ers set on Trubisky is wrong. 2 reasons. 1 in an article Lynch and the guy who set up the trade had a conversation. Something like. So they are taking Thomas right. I don't think so. who are they taking? I think it's Trubisky. Really? I think so.

Their war room clearly didn't look like they just passed on their QB.

Likely they thought Thomas was the pick initially. They wanted to work down and get Foster. At 3 Thomas was still there and the offers where not as good so they took him.
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From what I gathered, the 49ers made it very clear to the rest of the NFL that they were selling the #2 pick. Pace supposedly caught wind that some teams were looking at Trubisky because they were talking to Pace at #3 about trading up to that pick.

I don't necessarily think we HAD to trade up to #2 to get Trubisky, because Pace played his hand beautifully, but at the end of the day something spooked him and he did what he does: felt conviction on a player and did whatever it took to get him.

I'm happy with it -- I didn't love the trade up at the time but I did love the player. I'm beating a dead horse in hindsight here but if you told me in year 2 this kid would have a 2 to 1 TD to INT ratio, avg 7.5 YPA, and throw for over 3,000 yards I'd take it and run.
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I think Trubisky takes a huge jump next year with another offseason in this offense - paired with Nagy. I applaud Pace for being decisive and getting the QB he wanted. Now, you can criticize him and his staff for mis-evaluating the talent at the position but you can't criticize him for being bold and wanting to get his guy. Remember, Mitch was the consensus #1 QB for Pace and his entire scouting staff. There was a conviction on Mitch across the board internally, so that was their guy. It remains to be seen if Mitch can live up to the potential - but I have confidence he has not reached his ceiling yet. He still has a lot of growing to do and can be much better statistically than he was in Year 1 of this offense.

I think Pace views Mitch as his version of "Brees".
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