Bears coach Matt Nagy and quarterback Mitchell Trubisky used the 24-hour rule when it came to the team's decision to decline Trubisky's fifth-year option. The Bears informed Trubisky of their decision on May 2, and both sides soon went back to work.
For Trubisky, work means winning back his job as the Bears' starting quarterback in a competition with veteran Nick Foles.
"We move on," Nagy said on a teleconference Friday. "We’re all very open and honest with the discussions we have, and we just let the thing play out. And in the end, what we want is for both those quarterbacks to be the best possible quarterbacks that they can be individually and then make it hard on us to make the decision on who the starter is, so that makes the Bears a better football team.
"When you have two good people like we do in Mitchell and Nick, it makes these types of decisions and conversations a lot easier to have because they’re competitive as hell, they want the best for the Bears and they’re gonna fight their tails off to do that. And I think that’s the beauty of it.
"I was proud of how he handled it."
If the Bears had exercised Trubisky's fifth-year option, he would've been paid north of $24 million for 2021. Instead, he's set to become a free agent after this season, one in which his role with the team is uncertain.
The Bears acquired Foles in a trade with the Jaguars in March, sending Jacksonville a fourth-round pick in exchange. The No. 2 overall pick in 2017, Trubisky was inconsistent as Chicago finished 8-8 in 2019.
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With the NFL unlikely to allow on-field work during the offseason program, Trubisky and Foles won't begin their position battle until the Bears take the field.
But Nagy is still seeking growth from Trubisky during the virtual program now and through the summer.
"He's learning how to play the quarterback position," Nagy said. "That doesn't always mean on the field, that means off the field. Watching tape, what notes do you take? What's your schedule going to be? Right? How do you accept coaching? How do you give feedback? And all of that stuff has been going on right now has been going on in different ways.
"I can see he's starting to create his own way, his own habits. And obviously the biggest thing is none of it matters unless we all go out there and do it on the field, and now that's going to be the next challenge, taking it onto the field and doing it through a competition."