With NFL conference championship week having come and gone, there are less than two weeks until the Super Bowl. Here's a look at three former North Carolina football players who stood out for their teams this year.
Mitchell Trubisky, quarterback — Chicago Bears
The Chicago Bears drafted Mitchell Trubisky with the No. 2 pick in the 2017 NFL draft after the team finished the 2016 season with the most losses (13) by a Bears team since 1969. Two years later, Trubisky was named the Bears first Pro Bowl quarterback since Jim McMahon in 1985. This comes after the second-year pro and first-year head coach Matt Nagy successfully led the Bears to their first NFC North title since the 2010 season.
To call the 2018 season a breakout year for Trubisky would be a severe understatement. In just his second year as a pro, he posted the third-highest total quarterback rating in the regular season, trailing only Patrick Mahomes and Drew Brees. Trubisky's completion percentage rose over seven points and he threw for over a thousand more yards and 17 additional touchdowns compared to his rookie season.
Although much of Trubisky's newfound success was overshadowed by the noise of the No. 1 scoring defense in the NFL and Nagy's controversial decision to keep rocking the bald-guy-in-a-visor look, Trubisky's quiet efficiency from his junior season at UNC has arrived in Chicago.
Trubisky's effectiveness looks to be here to stay and there should be no field goals hitting the crossbar twice to save opposing teams next season.
Eric Ebron, tight end — Indianapolis Colts
Eric Ebron spent the first four years of his NFL career as a relatively unknown piece of the Detroit Lions offense. Tight ends are rarely glorified and Ebron's tenure with the Lions was hardly an exception to that rule.
