Former New England Patriots safety Rodney Harrison has seen the good, bad and ugly the NFL has had to offer in terms of quarterback play. He has played on teams led by the likes of Tom Brady, and he has also experienced what it was to be on a squad led by notorious draft bust Ryan Leaf.
Harrison, who is also a co-host on NBC’s Football Night in America alongside Tony Dungy, spoke with NBC Sports’ J.J. Stankevitz this week about the upcoming NFL season, and when talk turned to the Chicago Bears‘ current quarterback situation, Harrison stopped being polite and started getting real.
Rodney Harrison on Mitch Trubisky: He Needs to Beat Nick Foles, or He’ll Be a Backup Forever
GettyMitchell Trubisky of the Chicago Bears will be competing for QB1 against veteran Nick Foles this year. (Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images)
Harrison, who spent the first nine years of his career playing with the then-San Diego Chargers, knows all about quarterbacks who were drafted high yet didn’t pan out. When discussing the specific case of Trubisky, who the Bears traded up to draft second-overall in 2017, Harrison thinks it’s absolutely now or never for the fourth-year quarterback.
“If he doesn’t start this year, and I’m going to tell you something — this is gonna happen, this is gonna play out. He’ll never start again,” Harrison told Stankevitz during an episode of the Under Center Podcast. “He’ll be a career backup. He’ll be a career backup and he’ll be considered one of the (NFL’s) biggest busts.”
Harrison then reminded everyone about his own past experience.
“Let me tell you something,” he said. “I’m an expert on quarterback busts, bad quarterbacks because I played with Ryan Leaf.” While Stankevitz noted Trubisky is far superior to Leaf stats-wise, the Bears’ decision not to pick up his fifth-year option put him in some unflattering company.
Mitch Trubisky is 9th QB Since 2011 to Not Have 5th-Year Option Picked Up
Stankevitz listed every quarterback since 2011 who has NOT had his fifth-year option picked up, and he looked at what their career trajectories were like after that. Trubisky joins Blaine Gabbert, Jake Locker, Johnny Manziel, Paxton Lynch, Christian Ponder, Teddy Bridgewater, E.J. Manuel and Brandon Weeden as the only QBs taken in the first round who had their options declined. Bridgewater’s option was declined because of his knee injury, and he’s the lone exception to go on and earn a starting spot elsewhere — but he was a backup for a few years before he did that.
Of those eight QBs, five never went on to start a game after their fourth year, and they had 28 starts total as a group (21 of which were Gabbert’s) in their respective careers after that.
Harrison’s latest declaration about Trubisky is a far cry from what he said about the QB last August, prior to the season: “When I’m looking at the Chicago Bears, I’m looking at their offense,” Harrison said last fall on Football Night in America. “We know they have a great defense, a top 5 defense. But the big question, they have a lot of skill guys, can Mitchell Trubisky take them to the next level? I look at them last year, they allowed him to throw the football down the field and be more aggressive. I think he can take this team to the Super Bowl, I think that’s how good he can be.”
That’s a long way to fall in less than a year. Whether Trubisky can climb back up will be one of the more intriguing storylines of the upcoming NFL season.
Beth Mishler-Elmore is a Heavy sports contributor based in the Midwest, focusing on the Chicago Bears, Philadelphia Eagles and Miami Heat. She also covers the Bears for Bear Report, a CBS Sports affiliate. More about Beth Mishler-Elmore
