Pace senses 'different mindset' from Trubisky

[Staley Da Bear]

"There was a lot of blame to go around last year," Pace told reporters. "We could've been better in a lot of areas. Of course, being the quarterback, he takes the brunt of a lot of that. Then we trade for a quarterback and then we don't exercise the fifth-year option and all these things happen. And the moment camp started, the moment he walked in the building, you just felt a different presence and a different mindset, and that carried him throughout camp. I'm just proud of the way he's conducted himself."


Trubisky acknowledged Sunday that he was driven by his subpar 2019 season and the tough offseason that followed.


"I truly believe that it was just a part of my journey and something I had to deal with in order to get better," Trubisky said. "I believe the way you deal with things is going to determine how it builds you up, and it only makes you better in the long run. I just accepted it as a challenge. It really pushed me every day mentally to just want to get better and want to prove everyone wrong and make sure that this was still my team."


Pace believes the difficulties that Trubisky has experienced in his first three NFL seasons will benefit him the rest of his career.


"I do think that Mitch, whatever word you want to use—calloused, hardened—whatever it is, Mitch naturally, as a young player that has gone through what he's gone through, I think he's naturally gained a lot of that," Pace said. "It's not like he's walking around here mad all the time; it's just more of a kind of a focused, calloused feel to him that I think you need to play quarterback in this league—not just in Chicago but to play quarterback in the league in general, and I think he's developed a lot of that."