Saturday afternoon's Buffalo Bills-Chicago Bears preseason game at Solider Field may have a little more juice than a normal exhibition game.
The Week 2 preseason contest will mark the first time that former Bears quarterback Mitchell Trubisky - now Josh Allen's backup in Buffalo - will return to Chicago since his roller-coaster four-year stint as the team's starting quarterback.
One of Trubisky's new teammates, running back Matt Breida, sounds about as amped for the return as anyone:
Though the Bears went 29-21 in games that Trubisky started and made the playoffs twice in four years under the former second overall pick in the 2017 NFL Draft, his selection may haunt Bears general manager Ryan Pace for the rest of his career. Not only did the Bears trade up a spot to ensure they could select Trubisky, but they selected the former North Carolina product with both Patrick Mahomes and Deshaun Watson still on the board. Watson's current legal troubles may complicate this discussion a bit, but clearly he and Mahomes are superior quarterbacks by a large margin.
In any event, Trubisky will start against the Bears on Saturday, with Allen not slated to play in the game. If he carves up the Bears defense, it will be a fun national storyline. But after four years in Chicago, a preseason game probably isn't going to sway anyone's mind on Trubisky.
Make no mistake, Trubisky is in a really good situation in Buffalo.
If Allen were to get hurt, he'd step into an offense with immense talent, giving him a chance to showcase himself for potential future employers. In the meantime, Trubisky will get a chance to develop under Brian Daboll, seen as one of the better offensive coordinators in the league given how well Allen has progressed under his tutelage. If Daboll gets a head coaching job in 2022 - which is a very real possibility - perhaps he'll bring Trubisky with him.
Bears fans, however, will be much more focused Saturday on how Andy Dalton and Justin Fields look. While Dalton will get the start, Fields returned to practice Thursday as he recovers from a groin injury. It does appear that Fields will play Saturday.
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