(670 The Score) While Bears coach Matt Nagy has already acknowledged the team wants to stretch its quarterback competition out “as far as we can” without the benefit of preseason games, just how long could it last?
In the mind of Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk, perhaps that means all season. While Chicago should declare a full-time starter before its opener at Detroit on Sept. 13, Florio envisions the quarterback competition and question of who’s starting any given game to be a storyline that follows the Bears all season long.
“I can’t rule out quarterback competitions extending into September this year,” Florio said on the Mully & Haugh Show on Wednesday morning. “Because there’s no opportunity to even practice against another team, play another team. How do we evaluate these guys? Whoever wins this quarterback competition is simply winning the right to be the first guy benched. Because it feels inevitable – unless they come out of the gates and kick ass and get to 4-1, 5-2, 6-2, 7-3 – they’re eventually going to flip to the other guy. So the question is who’s going to be the best guy? Who’s going to be the one who’s under that gun of, ‘You’d better play well or you’re on the bench.’
“That’s why I think they should see what both guys can do, see how both guys respond to that.”
Trubisky and Foles have been rotating reps evenly early on during the Bears’ full-contact practices.
“Maybe you just go back and forth,” Florio said. “Maybe you just see who ends up running the offense. Maybe you run a slightly different offense with Trubisky than you do with Foles and you force the defense to prepare for both guys each and every week. Look, by not picking up Trubisky’s (2021 contract) option, by bringing in Nick Foles, that’s a double indictment of Trubisky. So I think he’s really going to have to prove himself to have a chance to play this year or Foles is just going to have to fall flat on his face or get injured. But I agree with you, I think both guys are going to play. The question is when they play, how are they going to play and is it going to be enough to get a better outcome than we saw last season?”