SPLIT DOWN THE MIDDLE
With QB question burning, get used to even workloads for Trubisky, Foles
After five months of waiting to see who the Bears’ starting quarterback will be, it looks like the suspense will continue to drag out awhile.
Incumbent Mitch Trubisky and challenger Nick Foles took turns in team drills during practice Monday, and coach Matt Nagy is in no hurry to shift toward one of them taking the bulk of the snaps.
“We are going to stretch that out as far as we possibly can,” Nagy said. “There’s limited reps, limited time, so we’re going to . . . literally take it as far as we need to go. Both of these guys have experience in this game, and I think that’s only what’s fair.”
Fair, sure.
But satisfying? Hardly. Nonetheless, that’s the plan. The Bears will keep alternating the two as they work through the preseason. There are 13 practices remaining before they begin preparations for the opener at Detroit on Sept. 13.
Trubisky and Foles have unofficially been making their cases in walkthroughs and teleconferences, but the real competition began Monday. Each was in for fewer than 20 snaps for 11-on-11 drills, and a large portion was run plays.
Amid that work, there were signs of frustration and hope. Early in practice, Trubisky forced one over the middle to wide receiver Allen Robinson in triple coverage; it fell incomplete. Foles came through later with a completion to new tight end Jimmy Graham in heavy traffic. Both had good and bad moments.
For those eager to make a judgment on who leads the race, there wasn’t nearly enough evidence for that. Any prediction would still be based on what Trubisky and Foles did in seasons past, and neither is the runaway favorite based on that.
Trubisky played well enough for the Bears to cash in on their elite defense in 2018 and win the NFC North, then spiraled toward the bottom of the NFL last season. He was bottom-six in passer rating (83.0) and yards per game (209.2) and threw just 17 touchdowns against 10 interceptions.
That was enough for Nagy and general manager Ryan Pace to decide they no longer wanted to bet their future employment on him. So, in a world where Cam Newton was available for the veteran minimum, the Bears traded a fourth-round draft pick for Foles and signed him for three years, $24 million.
Foles casts an impressive shadow at 6-6, 253 pounds and has a Super Bowl MVP trophy from his days with the Eagles, but his overall résumé is choppy. He’s on his fifth team in nine seasons, has been a full-time starter twice and is coming off a frustrating stint in Jacksonville last year. The Jaguars signed him to a four-year, $88 million contract; he then suffered a broken clavicle in the first quarter of the first game (on a touchdown pass, no less) and was out until November. He returned for three games before being benched in favor of Gardner Minshew.
Trubisky bristled at the Bears stripping him of his place as the unquestioned starter, but he knew it was likely after how poorly he played last season. Both he and Foles have spoken highly of each other, and either figures to be a good teammate as the backup.
Asked about Trubisky’s response to being thrown into a competition, Nagy noted an enhanced determination but also a willingness to coexist with his competitor.
“Whatever he’s doing, there’s just a great intention for him right now to play quarterback the best that he can and not worry about anything else,” Nagy said. “Mitch right now is in a place mentally that I really just feel like is really good. I like where he’s at.”
That’s fine for Day 1, but eventually Nagy must decide whether he trusts Trubisky or Foles to turn the team around after a brutal disappointment in 2019. One of the two must set himself apart, and time is already running short.
“THERE’S LIMITED REPS, LIMITED TIME, SO WE’RE GOING TO ... LITERALLY TAKE IT AS FAR AS WE NEED TO GO. I THINK THAT’S ONLY WHAT’S FAIR.” MATT NAGY, Bears coach, on not leaning toward a starting quarterback too soon
Darion Clark, the former USC basketball player whom the Bears signed to a free-agent deal this offseason, walked down the path that winds from Halas Hall to the backfields Monday morning. At 8:47, he became the first Bears player to step on the grass for their first padded practice of training camp — and their first serious practice of any kind since Dec 27.
About 20 minutes later, he was joined by, among others, quarterbacks Mitch Trubisky and Nick Foles, whose play will define the Bears’ season. Presuming there is a season during the coronavirus pandemic.
Eventually, music echoed off the nearby trees. Players stretched and clapped and thumped each other. They even tackled each other in drills.
It was normal. And absolutely bizarre.
The Bears’ first padded practice came only 27 days before their season opener against the Lions — and five months after Americans were told not to touch their fellow man, much less wrestle him to the ground.
“It feels regular to me,” defensive tackle Bilal Nichols said. “Ball is ball. When we get out there, we are going full speed, 100 mph. We’re here to play ball. Nothing feels different to me. It feels like a normal practice.”
It was not a normal practice. Players were careful to drink from plastic water bottles with their names on them.
Every assistant coach wore a mask. Players didn’t — nor did it seem that they wore the newly approved clear plastic shield over their facemask, either. But they’re required to don a face covering anytime they’re indoors on the Halas Hall campus.
Coach Matt Nagy wears his mask when he’s alone in his office — and even sometimes at home with his four boys. He wants it to feel normal.
“Just risk mitigation,” Nagy said. “That’s proven that helps the best in spreading it and containing it. It’s also been proven that it’s not as contagious when you’re outside. So we can’t make the players wear their masks when they’re outside in practice, but we can with the coaches. So that’s just what we’re doing. We’ve had no pushback with that.”
Nagy has preached safety as though it were a game plan since the first rookie reported for training camp three weeks ago. On Monday, he said that the measures were “becoming normal” and that players need to stay vigilant.
“Before we got here, they told us a lot of things were going to be different,” safety Eddie Jackson said. “So right now, we’re used to it. We’re in the third week of it. So everything is just going well. It’s probably more normal now.”
Just to be able to practice, every member of the Bears’ 80-man roster must take a daily coronavirus test inside a mobile laboratory parked at Halas Hall. To enter the building, they must get their temperature taken at the front door.
Inside, they wear masks, pick up individually packaged food at the cafeteria and hang out with their lockers spaced farther apart than usual. Their meetings either take place on Zoom or inside the cavernous Walter Payton Center, the team’s practice dome.
It’s not the same as it was last year. Nothing is. But for 90 minutes, it felt familiar.
“For all the guys that have a real passion for football or a real love for football and have been doing this their entire lives, this whole [coronavirus] situation has put us out of whack,” defensive lineman Akiem Hicks said. “Coming back to football has given us a sense of regularity.
“It does feel good to be back out there. And it does feel like football again.”