QB OR NOT QB?
That is the question in sizing up Nick Foles and Mitch Trubisky as they face their biggest test today in Bears’ scrimmage
The Bears’ scrimmage Saturday at Soldier Field will give players their only look at the team’s game-day experience, such as it is in the time of COVID-19.
More important, it will give quarterbacks Mitch Trubisky and Nick Foles their most high-profile opportunities to seize the starting job.
Neither has distinguished himself through the first two weeks of padded practices, leaving observers with different opinions about who is in the lead. Below, the Sun-Times’ Patrick Finley, Jason Lieser and Mark Potash answer the only question that matters this preseason: Who’s winning the starting quarterback job as Trubisky and Foles prepare to practice Saturday?
PATRICK FINLEY: TRUBISKY
The Bears claim they’re going to pick the best trainingcamp performer.
They’ll tell anyone who will listen it’s an
‘‘open competition,” painstakingly graded by coach Matt Nagy, offensive coordinator Bill Lazor and quarterbacks coach John DeFilippo and discussed at length in daily meetings.
If they truly believe that, then Trubisky is the leader. He has been the better performer in camp — or, perhaps more accurately, the less poor one.
The Bears had hoped for a winner by knockout relatively early in camp. Trubisky is winning a split decision, though, and Nagy is warning he’ll take as long as he can to name his starter because neither has proved to be dynamic on the practice field.
To me, Foles has looked better than Trubisky during only two of the Bears’ padded practices, including the most recent one open to the media Wednesday. It’s possible that after spending the early part of the month learning his teammates’ names and the playbook, Foles only will get better. But he’s not there yet.
Trubisky began camp with a running start. He threw to teammates at suburban high schools throughout the offseason, and Foles never did. But despite the talk of Trubisky’s motivation and new ‘‘edge,’’ he hasn’t turned that early advantage into a tangible lead dur