In Bears country, is Mitch Trubisky on the bubble to be another of Ryan Pace’s first round busts? If Trubisky is thrown in the back seat of the car because Nick Foles out plays him in camp, will this end Ryan Pace as the Bears GM for good? This weekend the Bears traded tight end Adam Shaheen to the Miami Dolphins for a late conditional draft pick. Shaheen was a 2nd round draft pick in 2017. If Mitch Trubisky is a bust in a draft where you could have chosen Deshaun Watson and Patrick Mahomes, then your number two pick of 2017 you have just traded to Miami after three seasons in Chicago. Do you chalk up 2017 as just a bad year for GM Ryan Pace? The Bears GM’s track record is not being able to hit on top picks.

Ryan Pace and the Bears thought they struck gold picking Adam Shaheen out of the small college of Ashland. They thought he was going to be a baby Gronk, as he’s a big target at 6’6″ with arms that reach high in  the sky. Shaheen never came close to a Rob Gronkowski as in three years, injuries sidelined his play to only 27 games. Shaheen’s play was ineffective. On the field he only caught 26 balls for 249 yards and 4 touchdowns in his career during those three years. You could say he was wide open a few times and Mitch Trubisky either did not trust him or missed him totally. Bears drafted a tight end, Cole Kmet, from Notre Dame this off season and signed veteran Jimmy Graham. This is another questionable signing the Bears have made trying to repair a hole from a draft pick. Writing has been on the wall as the Bears collected at one point 11 freaking tight ends. Bears have cut ties with a few like Trey Burton, who was riddled with injuries last season. Bears actually save 1.3 million off the cap with this trade off to Miami and actually get something for how poor Shaheen has played over his entire Bears career. A 6th or 7th rounder will not make up for a miss on a 2nd rounder. It’s something. My thoughts are Shareen would have ended up being cut and Dolphins could have gotten him that way.

When the Bears made the trade to get Khaili Mack and used some first round picks to make that deal happen, I thought it was good. GM Ryan Pace’s history shows he can not hit on top picks. In 2015, Kevin White, a wide receiver, was the Bears top pick who had injury history in which Bears knew about and still drafted him. Kevin White will be the biggest bust by the Bears GM. However if Mitch Trubisky goes elsewhere after this season, he may haunt the GM for Chicago more because he was fleeced by the 49ers to move up one spot. This cost the Bears a draft pick and he picked the wrong guy. Obviously, Trubisky has had a better career than White in the NFL. When you whiff on a quarterback and you miss two studs he could have had, it will hurt more then a wide receiver that could not stay on the field. Then let’s not forget Leonard Floyd, the skinny as rail defensive end who was the Bears’ first round pick in 2015. Floyd had moments, but he never played like he was hyped up to be. Maybe the Bears staff did not provide him with seconds at the dinner table.

By adding a Khaili Mack to the Bears defense, GM Ryan Pace turned that unit into one of the best units in the league. The hope was to have the quarterback position figured out, and that’s why they drafted Mitch Trubisky. It looked like it was going to work as the 2018 Bears were back in the playoffs. The double doink kick was the blame for the team’s whole season when they were ousted in the first round by the Eagles from one of those kicks. The kicking game can be blamed on the GM. Ryan Pace cut legendary Bears kicker, Robbie Gould. Ryan Pace still has not figured out the kicking game since cutting Gould. Bears were able to take advantage of an easier schedule when this team made it to the playoffs in 2018. Now that dominant defense sees the window is closing, as the roster has been riddled with holes like Swiss cheese. Due to trading most of your picks. Due to missing on high draft picks. The Monsters of the Midway are a boat with holes, as GM Ryan Pace continues to plug the leaks, but another leak always pops up. Putting a bandaid on the wreck here, and there, and back again eventually will burst like Ryan Pace’s GM career.

The 2019-20 NHL hockey regular season came to a screeching halt when the Corona Virus shut down every sport in i’s tracks. The Chicago Blackhawks were mathematically still alive to make a post season spot at that time. However the team had to jump over a few teams with not that many games left in the regular season. The Blackhawks were sellers at the trade deadline as they traded goal tender Robin Lehner to the Vegas Golden Knights when they only just signed him as a free agent on a one year deal in the off season. Blackhawks were left with Cory Crawford who started the last 8 games before operations were shut down. Did the Blackhawks make the right choice in net minders? Now Blackhawks find themselves alive. The team will play the Edmonton Oilers in  a short series in a qualifying round. Winner advances to the Stanley Cup playoffs. In a short series, with Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane, Duncan Keith and Cory Crawford, anything could happen. The core with the experience and they have a ticket back to the post season; it sounds too good to be true. Blackhawks announce Cory Crawford unfit to play.

In off season the reason why the Blackhawks went out and signed a Robin Lehner, was because of Crawford unable to take on the full load in regular season. Cory Crawford has been dealing with concussions and has missed more ice time in the last few years resulting in Blackhawks missing the playoffs. With Crawford and Lehner teaming up, the Blackhawks had the best goalie tandem in the league. Robin Lehner is no slouch in the 2018-19 season. He won the Masterton award for his goalie play with the Islanders. Lehner helped his team get 103 points in the standings for the Islanders which they have not done since the early 1980’s. Lehner and Thomas Greiss together in the net allowed the fewest goals in the regular season for the Islanders that season.  Too many injuries occurred this year for the Blackhawks and for this goalie tandem able to save this team and break their post season drought just did not happen. Blackhawks GM Stan Bowman shipped Robin Lehner to Vegas got a back goalie as part of the deal as Malcom Subban now wears the Indian head. Robin Lehner did want to stay in Chicago and wanted a contract extension. Two goalies paying big money was not in the cards for a GM Stan Bowman. This deal will come back to haunt the GM who is on the bubble of himself being trounced out of the windy city and being replaced.

Cory Crawford you can say is one of the best goalies in Blackhawks history. Crawford has helped this franchise capture two Stanley Cups with his brilliant play. In 2019-20 it seemed the duel banjos of Lehner and himself was helping him stay the course of the season health wise. The 35 year old Cory Crawford finished the regular season with a record of 16-20-3 with a 2.77 GAA and 9.17 save percentage. These are good numbers. These are numbers the Blackhawks need in a five game series with the Oilers. During phase 3 and 4 of the Covid plan to get  back to normal, Crawford did not participate in voluntary workouts. The Blackhawks have not givien a clear response why Crawford is unfit to play. Speculation is he’s dealing with concussions once again. Perhaps he’s just out of shape after this lay off. Some will whisper he likes to drink a bit too much. You can even throw in the Virus still lurking making him not want to play.

In a short game series with Crawford playing without issues, I thought this was a great chance for the Blackhawks to skate back in the postseason. Thought they could get by the Oilers and move on to the first round of the actual post season. If Malcom Subban gets the starting job in net, his stats this season was a 9-7 record with a 3.17 GAA  and 8.90 save percentage. Blackhawks also have Collin Delia who has only 18 career games on his resume in the NHL. Without Crawford the goalie stats do not look good versus the Edmonton Oilers. In the NHL playoffs a hot goalie could be the Ace in the deck of any series. Even if Cory Crawford played it is not a automatic series win because he could be horrible from the lay off as most players will have to knock off the rust very quickly.

Now some news has Cory Crawford may travel with the team versus Edmonton. Crawford has not got the green light to play in the series. I still think the Blackhawks should have extended Robin Lehner and cut their ties with a Cory Crawford. The Blackhawks need to remove some of the core that are aging. I can see building still around Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews, but they are aging and we are wasting time with hopes of a Brent Seabrook and Duncan Keith playing like they used to. We are wasting time thinking a Cory Crawford could bring superior net presence for an entire regular season and post season on a regular basis. It is a shame that Crawford can’t play because he has a great history versus Canada teams like the Edmonton Oilers. I sense if Crawford played and played well we would never be able to get rid of him. Then more concussions will come and more games Crawford would miss and we back to the same drawing board. The Blackhawks find themselves scratching their heads every year. They continue not to see the obvious and that leads their brain trust still making the wrong moves each season.

The Chicago Bears, in 2017, were looking to solve a long time problem the team had behind center. The most important position in the game of football. The quarterback position. For decades now the Bears have had nothing but hot garbage throwing the football. The quarterback from the 1940’s, Sid Luckman, is still the best in franchise history. An ERA where they ran the ball coming off the bus. Loved Jim McMahon as the punky quarterback who led the Bears to their only Superbowl title. Jim Miller and Erik Kramer showed me heart and determination at the position. If Jay Cutler had a statue, I would get a band of protesters together and play some mailbox baseball with Cutler’s granite cranium. In 2017, the Bears had a chance to fix their ongoing problem which has aggravated fans for years. The experts had 3 door prizes in the very first round to choose from. The Bears had first crack at each door prize. They went with the booby prize by taking Mitch Trubisky. At the same time, the Chiefs moved up and took Patrick Mahomes, as he was the last door to be opened. The Texans took Deshaun Watson, who was the second door prize. What if the Bears were able to land Patrick Mahomes?

It took Patrick Mahomes only three seasons to win a Superbowl after the Chiefs beat up the 49ers in the big game on the biggest stage this past February. Patrick Mahomes playing behind center has earned him a ten year extension worth 503 million dollars. It is easiest the biggest contract by one player in sports history. This deal surpasses Mike Trout for the biggest in sports. Mahomes is the first half billion dollar player in the history of the sporting world. Patrick Mahomes only played in one game in 2017, as he watched and learned Andy Reid’s system. In 2018, Patrick Mahomes lit up the league with his play. Mahomes threw 29 touchdown passes in his first ten games, more than any other QB in NFL history. Mahomes became the first Chiefs player to pass the pigskin for 8 straight games, throwing for 300 plus yards in each of those contests. Mahomes easily has become one the NFL biggest stars and you have to say he’s up there with the leagues best at the quarterback position after only three years in the league.

How did the Bears get the booby prize? Let’s look at the college stats of the three door prizes in 2017.

PATRICK MAHOMES: TEXAS TECH, 32 GAMES, 11,252 YARDS, 93 TD PASSES, 29 INTERCEPTIONS WITH 63.5 COMPLETION PERCENTAGE AND 152.0 QB RATING

DESHAUN WATSON: CLEMSON: 38 GAMES, 10,168 YARDS, 90 TD PASSES, 32 INTERCEPTIONS WITH A 67.4 COMPLETION PERCENTAGE AND 157.5 QB RATING

MITCH TRUBISKY:NORTH CAROLINA, 31 GAMES, 4,762 YARDS, 41 TD PASSES, 10 INTERCEPTIONS WITH 67.5 COMPLETION PERCENTAGE AND 157.6 QB RATING

If I was just going by the numbers and what they did in college, Deshaun Watson would be the number one pick out of the three choices. Plus Watson had Clemson in the College championships battling it out with Alabama more than once. Mahomes’ numbers in college are off the charts. Mahomes played six less games than Watson and threw more TD passes and more yards. Not even mentioning the rushing stats from Mahomes. Mitch Trubisky’s numbers look good. Most games he played was a back up role as he only started one season In North Carolina. Trubisky has the highest completion percentage out of all three. In the NFL, Mitch Trubisky has a hard time with hitting wide open receivers in stride.

What if the Bears chose Patrick Mahomes instead of Mitch Trubisky? Originally Mitch Trubisky was going to sit his first season as he learned from Mike Glennon. Glennon I first thought would be a decent choice for the Bears in 2017 when he was on the free agent market.  The Bears overpaid for his services. Mike Glennon was touched by the Bears and presto… he turned into hot garbage. Like the kiss that turned the prince into a frog. Would Patrick Mahomes have done better behind center than Mitch Trubisky in 2017 under the Coach Fox coaching staff? Mahomes makes players better around him and can make plays happen with his arm or just taking off with his legs. I would like to think that Mahomes would have done better that season in a Bears uniform than Mitch Trubisky. In 2018, the Bears had the best defense in the league. Bears gave Trubisky help with a better receiving core. Plus they brought in Matt Nagy to take over for John Fox as head coach. Matt Nagy who worked in Kansas City before coming to Chicago. Nagy had coached Mahomes in Kansas City his rookie year. Remember Mahomes only played one game in 2017. If the Bears had drafted Mahomes he would have eventually ran the same kind of similar offense they ran in Kansas City with the arrival of Nagy. Trubisky did well in 2018 with a limited amount of Matt Nagy’s play book. We know Patrick Mahomes thrives in that system, just by career numbers out of three door prizes of the 2017 draft.

Would the double doink of a kick still have happened from Cody Parky in the playoff game between the Bears and Eagles with Patrick Mahomes as your QB? I thought the Bears left a few wins on the field in 2018. Including the opener where Green Bay came back in the 4th quarter in that game the Bears had won, but Aaron Rodgers put up yet another miracle come \back. Does Patrick Mahomes extend drives in that opening night in the second half and prevent Green Bay from making that come back? I think the Bears would have won more games in 2018 and had a first round bye and never faced Nick Foles and the Eagles. If they drafted Patrick Mahomes, they might have had the best defensive player with Khaili Mack and Mahomes, the best offensive player in the league in the same year. In 2018, people can easily blame the kicker. Mitch Trubisky had a good year, but he still was the weakest link. The defense was Superbowl caliber. Matt Nagy’s offense was impressive. Mahomes would be a game changer and the Bears coulda woulda turned into Superbowl champions. I still don’t know why the Bears gave up draft picks to the 49ers to move up one spot to only land Mitch Trubisky in 2017. If the 49ers wanted one of those quarterbacks, you still had two other choices. Would the 49ers actually pick Mitch Trubisky? Bears then would have probably passed on Mahomes and Watson and found something else in the draft if the 49ers wanted Trubisky. Maybe for Patrick Mahomes it is a blessing that the Bears did not pick him. In Chicago, quarterbacks and wide receivers come and immediately are put out to pasture. What if the Bears had their guy locked up for ten years not having to worry about the most important position on the field? When they did think they had their guy in the past, it was well wasted money extending a Jay Cutler.  Bringing back Sid Luckman would be a crazy idea. We should have cloned him back then. When it comes to being a Bears fan I feel like the Portland Trailblazers passing on Michael Jordan and picking Sam Bowie is the same brain trust who made that executive decision.