Bears Making Same Old Mistakes By Naming Mitchell Trubisky Starter

The dominant storyline of the 2020 offseason for the Chicago Bears has been about the quarterback position. After trading for Super Bowl LII MVP Nick Foles and declining the 2021 option on Mitchell Trubisky, it appeared Matt Nagy and the Bears were turning the page. That it would be a different story this year after a wildly disappointing 2019.

Instead, the Bears will again roll out Trubisky as the starter in their season opener at the Detroit Lions on Sept. 13.

In doing so, Chicago is making a mistake—in a season in which the franchise has little margin for error if it wants to be competitive in the NFC North.

ESPN's Adam Schefter was among the first to report the Bears decided to go with the 2017 No. 2 pick.

On some level, it wasn't a surprise. In a shortened offseason and with limited practice reps, neither Trubisky nor Foles separated himself during training camp. As Patrick Finley of the Chicago Sun-Times reported, Nagy allowed this week that the waters were muddy for the Bears at football's most important position.

"It's not clear-cut," Nagy said.

The Bears have made a sizable investment in Trubisky since trading up to draft him, and Nagy said he was impressed by how Trubisky handled the competition for his job, per Terez Paylor of Yahoo Sports.

"He's playing football, he's having fun, he's smiling, and that's a credit to him because he's handling adversity right now, and there's a lot of other people that would just go in the tank and just think 'this is just not fair' and just feel bad for themselves," Nagy said. "And he's done the exact opposite."

The third-year head coach said the deciding factor in the competition was going to be a simple one.

"You step back and you just say, 'OK, what is best for the Chicago Bears?'" Nagy said. "You just keep it really, really simple. There's no agendas out there, there's not a setup, none of that. And you're just very fair."

If that really is the case, then it's hard to see why Nagy made the decision he did. In going with Trubisky, Nagy will replay a movie we've all seen before—and it's not a fun flick.

Charles Rex Arbogast/Associated Press

To be fair, Trubisky does have one clear advantage over Foles, especially in this oddest of years. He's been playing in Nagy's offense for the last two seasons. The head coach said Trubisky's growing experience showed through in camp.

"Even without playing a game, he's grown so much from the end of last year until today," Nagy said, per Paylor. "You just feel it. You feel his presence in the huddle, you feel his own confidence of where he feels we're going with this offense."

The thing is, after how Trubisky played in 2019, there was nowhere to go but up. There's no way to sugarcoat it: Trubisky wasn't good last season. His numbers fell across the board after his 11-3 run as a starter when Chicago won the NFC North title in 2018. Per ESPN, Trubisky ranked 28th in total QBR (39.4), tied for 27th in touchdown passes (17), 21st in passing yards (3,138), 32nd in yards gained per pass attempt (6.1) and 28th in passer rating (83.0).

Those figures don't even tell the whole story. For much of the season, Trubisky looked lost. His decision-making at times was bafflingly bad. He missed open receivers, threw into double coverage.

It was ugly.

Yes, the Bears are five games over .500 in Trubisky's 41 starts. But that's more despite him than because of him. After three years, we know who Trubisky is. He's not a terrible quarterback. But he's not a great one, either. Or an especially good one. And he's not going to suddenly become one.

There's a reason why the Bears traded for Foles. And handed him $21 million in guarantees. And declined Trubisky's option, setting him up to become a free agent next year.

This isn't to say Foles is a world-beater—his lone season with the Jacksonville Jaguars last year was an injury-marred mess. But Foles is a capable veteran who doesn't make a lot of mistakes. His magical run to a championship with the Philadelphia Eagles in 2017 demonstrated his ability to produce under pressure. And with the exception of completion percentage (61.9 to 63.4), his career numbers are almost universally better than Trubisky's.

Is Foles the future in Chicago? No. But he could be an excellent bridge to the young quarterback the Bears are going to bring in soon enough—because Trubisky isn't the franchise's future either.

Brian Cassella/Associated Press

Nagy and the Bears even caught a break of sorts and could've eased Foles into the offense. Chicago's opening slate is less than imposing. It doesn't face a team that made the playoffs last year until it hosts the New Orleans Saints in Week 8.

Foles isn't going to get more comfortable with second-team reps in practice or by holding a clipboard. And wasting a month of game reps on the guy you know isn't the guy before switching to Foles doesn't make a ton of sense. It's wheel-spinning.

Make no mistake: That's what is going to happen. Per Finley, Nagy said the quarterback competition won't end when the games start. All it will take for the hook to come is a bad performance or two by Trubisky in a loss or losses.

There are a couple of harsh realities the Bears have to face. The first is that general manager Ryan Pace blew the first round in 2017 in spectacular fashion. Chicago could have drafted Deshaun Watson. Or Patrick Mahomes.

The second reality is that while the Bears might not be the worst team in the NFC North (it's hard to wrest that title away from the Lions), they certainly aren't the best, either. The defense is stout, but the offensive line isn't what it was even a couple of years ago. David Montgomery's injury left an already shaky running back corps paper-thin.

So, the Bears will continue down the path they started down when they engaged the Jaguars about Foles. Toward turning the page at quarterback. To looking toward the future as opposed to clinging to the past.

Nagy and the Bears are choosing to do the same thing over and over again while hoping for a different result.

And that usually doesn't end well.