Bears avoided showing interest in Mitchell Trubisky after secret on-campus workout

The Bears asked Trubisky not to inform other teams that they'd worked him out for 90 minutes

The Chicago Bears stunned the NFL world last week when they surrendered three draft picks to move up one slot and draft former North Carolina quarterback Mitchell Trubisky with the No. 2 overall pick. Draftniks, analysts, and opposing teams weren't the only ones that were shocked -- Trubisky himself wasn't expecting it, either, because he barely had any contact with the Bears during the pre-draft process. 

The Bears met with Trubisky at the NFL combine, and they sent two reps to his pro day at UNC as well. Those two were far fewer than they sent to those of Patrick Mahomes (No. 10 to the Chiefs) or Deshaun Watson (No. 12 to the Texans), though, so it didn't seem like the Bears were quite as interested in him as they were in the other QBs. Not only that but the Bears paid Mike Glennon $45 million ($18.5 million guaranteed) this offseason, so although there were murmurs about a QB early, the general consensus was that it wasn't their top priority. 

But the Bears also held a secret workout with Trubisky on UNC's campus in March, the night after he went to dinner with several team executives. Ryan Pace, the team's general manager, liked what he saw and asked Trubisky not to tell other teams the Bears had put him through a 90-minute workout. Trubisky agreed. 

Here, via The MMQB's Emily Kaplan: 

The day after Trubisky's dinner with the Bears in March, the coaches conducted a workout. Trubisky's college center, Lucas Crowley, snapped balls and Trubisky did three-, five- and seven-step dropbacks. Former UNC wideouts Ryan Switzer (a fourth-round pick of the Cowboys) and Bug Howard (an undrafted free agent who signed with the Colts), plus tight end Jack Tabb (a 2015 UNC grad), ran routes. The session, which lasted about 90 minutes, went according to the Bears' detailed script. According to Trubisky, he threw just about every throw on the route tree in their system.

"They were coaching me as if I was already on the team," Trubisky says. "I think they wanted to see how I respond to coaching, how I adjust on the fly. I always tried my best when a team came to visit, but this was one of my better workouts."

Before leaving, Pace asked Trubisky for a favor: keep the workout under wraps. Trubisky obeyed. When other teams asked, he didn't say Chicago had come to visit. The Bears were just as coy. They sent only director of college scouting Mark Sadowski, national scout Ryan Kessenich and area scout Chris Prescott to his actual pro day. (By contrast, not only did Fox, Loggains, Lucas, Pace and Ragone attend Deshaun Watson's pro day at Clemson, Fox spent nearly the entire session talking to Tigers coach Dabo Swinney).

After that workout, though, Trubisky didn't hear from the Bears once. He thought they just weren't interested. 

"This felt like my favorite group of coaches that I met with," he said. "I felt like I was really connecting with them. Like I went on the best first date ... and then they never called. I didn't hear from them at all. And it's like, OK, I guess they weren't feeling it."

Per Kaplan, that ghosting strategy was intentional, as they did not want to alert the league that Trubisky was their target in the draft. It's safe to say the strategy of throwing everyone off the scent worked. Now we'll have to see if the trade to secure his services proves worth the steep cost.