With less than two weeks until the season opener, the Chicago Bears still have their biggest question to answer before taking the field against the Detroit Lions. Who will be their starting quarterback – Mitchell Trubisky or Nick Foles?
It’s a question that doesn’t appear to be any closer to be being answered. Although, it’s a decision that head coach Matt Nagy will have to make sooner rather than later.
This third week of padded practices is going to be crucial in determining the starting quarterback. Mostly because this is the last week before game week in preparation for the Lions in Week 1. The Bears are simply running out of time.
“That will be really good to see where they’re at, and we’re excited for really a lighter practice Monday and then getting into it Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday,” Nagy said. “And then we’ve got to make a decision.”
Unfortunately for the Bears, they haven’t been afforded the luxury of preseason games to help in their evaluation. All Nagy has to go off are training camp reps, which isn’t ideal.
It certainly doesn’t help that, at least from the media’s perspective over the last two weeks of practice, neither Trubisky or Foles has separated himself in this battle. While they’ve both had their share of good and bad moments, there’s been nothing flashy to give an edge to one or the other.
There’s a good chance this competition could end in a tie. If it were to come to that, Nagy knows what he would do in that situation. Although he’s certainly not going to show his hand.
“Well, I can tell you we’re definitely not going to toss a coin,” he said. “We’ve had those discussions before this camp even started. We’ve hit every scenario possible. I think it’s a very valid question because you don’t know. You don’t know how it’s going to go.
“You have a guy in Mitch who’s been in this offense for two years. You have a guy with Nick that has been a part of this offense in the past at different levels. What I would do in that situation is make sure that I’m listening to the coaches on our staff, and then whatever decision it is, if it is that close, we go with and we’re open and honest with them and tell them the ‘why’ part.
“But yeah, in certain situations, it could come to that. But we’ll do it together. We’ll make the decision together. In the end, it’s going to end up being my decision as the head coach. But we all do it collectively, which I think will be the good part.”
