The Chicago Bears had this quarterback competition all planned out. They were going to evaluate incumbent starter Mitchell Trubisky and Nick Foles through offseason workouts, training camp and preseason games before choosing their starter.
And then COVID-19 happened.
The effect was an entirely virtual offseason and the cancellation of the preseason to accommodate health and safety protocols amid the COVID-19 pandemic in training camp. The small sample size is certainly not ideal for Matt Nagy to make the most important decision ahead of the regular season.
The Bears have stressed an open and fair competition this entire offseason, and that’ll be the case in training camp. Both Trubisky and Foles will receive the same number of reps with and against the same teammates.
“Whatever drill we’re doing—whether it’s a live drill or a drill on the side with me—we want it to be tremendously competitive,” quarterbacks coach John DeFilippo told the media on Thursday. “But in that competitive environment, you want to see which guy moves this offense better, and I think it just really comes down to something as simple as that.
“When you’re in the huddle, who’s functioning better? Which guy is raising the other 10 guys’ level of play? Hopefully one of those guys steps up in that role sooner rather than later. That would be great for our football team. But we’ll take it out as long as we need to to make the best choice for our football team. But I think it’s who moves our football team and converts on third down.”
Given that the Bears will have just training camp reps to go off of, the evaluation will extend well beyond just completions, touchdowns and interceptions. They’re going to look at the same things they’d be looking at during a live game, which is also why it hurts that there’s no preseason games this year.
“We’re going to take it to the next level a little bit in terms of accuracy, in terms of timing, decision-making,” DeFilippo said. “We’re going to not just grade whether the ball was completed or not. We’re going to try to dive into who’s the more accurate guy, who threw it on time, maybe who was the more mobile guy, who got us the first down with his feet; little things that you have to make sure of for both guys.”
Regardless of who wins the competition, don’t expect them to have a very long leash. Should the eventual starter begin struggling, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see him benched.
Here’s hoping it doesn’t come to that. Although with Chicago’s dismal quarterback history, it’s more reality than expectation.
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