The Chicago Bears aren’t going to say whether Nick Foles or Mitch Trubisky is the starting quarterback until the first week of the NFL season. Josh Alper of Pro Football Talk said that head coach Matt Nagy announced the team won’t be naming its starter during the preseason.
That means the Bears season-opening opponent, the Detroit Lions, won’t know who they will be seeing on the other side of the ball until kickoff next month.
Trubisky has been the starter for the team for the last three seasons since he was taken with the club’s first-round pick in the 2017 NFL draft. He was chosen ahead of other players that have had a big impact in the NFL, including Patrick Mahomes, who was taken by the Kansas City Chiefs later on in the first round.
Some analysts believed the former North Carolina Tar Heel would be the starting signal-caller again in 2020, but the front office put a wrinkle in those plans by trading for Foles from the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Alper said that Nagy cited the absence of any in-person workouts until fall camps began earlier this month as one of the reasons that making the call about who will be QB1 for the squad is so difficult.
It was just last week that most programs in the NFL were able to hold practices where they allowed full pads.
Earlier in the day, Trubisky reportedly said he felt as though the lack of physical practices could help him. His reasoning was that he’d already been in the Bears’ system for the last few years.
While both players have had the playbook for months now, those around the league have been quick to point out it’s quite a bit different when it comes to putting plans in motion.
Alper said that while the rationale might have been solid, Nagy wasn’t willing to say one way or the other whether it was being taken into account.
The coach was asked in several different ways who he thought was playing better than the other since fall camp began. He is said to have gone out of his way not to answer in a manner that would give away his thinking.
Foles came to the Bears after a 2019 campaign where he entered as the starter for a Jaguars club that was expected to compete for a playoff spot. He broke his collar bone in the first game against the Kansas City Chiefs, struggled after his return, and was eventually benched in favor of rookie Gardner Minshew.
