Why Bears declining Trubisky's 5th-year option for 2021 is smart move

The Chicago Bears have declined the fifth-year option on Mitch Trubisky's rookie contract, Bears nation is in a tizzy and uninformed analysts immediately have begun tripping over themselves to be the first to claim it spells the end of his time as a Bear.

So please tell me this: How is the Bears doing the smart thing and exactly what we've known they were going to do for at least the last three or four months — really the only logical choice they had — such big news?

Remember when the Bears declined the fifth-year option on Kyle Fuller?

In his fourth season and final year on his rookie deal, Fuller emerged as one of the top corners in the game after showing signs of what was to come in 2014 and 2015, but then missing the entire 2016 season with a mysterious knee injury.

Before Year 5, in 2018, the Bears put a transition tag on Fuller. The Packers offered him a four-year, $56 million deal with $18 million guaranteed, and the Bears matched it.

Fuller became a first team all-pro in that season, went to the Pro Bowl and he returned to the Pro Bowl last season.

That contract ties Fuller with the Ravens' Marcus Peters as the seventh highest paid corner in the league based on average comp per year, but the guaranteed money is just 11th among currently signed corners.

It is a very team-friendly deal for an all-pro player.

Did having to play for it in his contract year have any impact on Fuller finding his path to being all that he can be?

Only he knows for sure, but it obviously didn't hurt.

And it obviously didn't hurt the Bears.

The team had absolutely no incentive to pick up Trubisky's fifth year. Had they picked it up, they would have paid him $24 million in 2021 unless they cut him prior to the season, and had he suffered an injury rendering him unable to play in 2021, the $24 million would have become fully guaranteed.

Or they could have kept him one more season and paid him $24 million to throw 30 picks like Jameis Winston did this year or spend half the season on the bench like Marcus Mariota — both after their fifth-year options were exercised.

If Trubisky doesn't take hold of the starting job and then take a significant step forward this season, the Bears won't need a fifth year to figure out who he is going to be, and he will be gone.

If he does arrive this season, the team would have scrambled to get an extension done prior to next season anyway even if they had exercised the option so they could lock up their franchise quarterback without having to use a franchise or transition tag on him after the 2021 season.

If Trubisky chose to gamble and not agree to an extension, the Bears could still tag him. And if another team did submit an offer sheet, they still would control him in exactly the way they did Fuller.

How can the Bears lose by not picking up the option? They can't.

The worst thing that happens is the kid becomes a stud and he ends up costing them a few million more for the 2021 season.

How is that a loss?

Two days after the 2019 season ended, Ryan Pace and Matt Nagy told us they still love Mitch, but they're going to force him to compete this season for his job.

First they brought in Nick Foles, and now they're telling him this is his contract year: show up or goodbye.

Try as I might, I can't find a single reason why anyone could have expected the Bears to do anything other than decline the option, or how they can be any more true to their words than in what they've done since last season ended.

Not only was this the right choice, it really was the only one. And no mater how loudly other pundits want to scream to the contrary, they're doing this because they do still have hope for him, not because he's any closer to being an ex-Bear.

• Twitter: @Hub_Arkush