Mitchell Trubisky Conceding Nothing to Nick Foles
If Mitchell Trubisky is going to lose his Bears starting quarterback job to Nick Foles, it won't be with his head down and pouting.
"I want to win this competition," Trubisky said. "I want to be the guy out on the field leading this team."
Trubisky is as optimistic as ever and during his teleconference of June 12 said he views himself as a better player than he showed last year during an 8-8 season. So Foles will need to be at his best.
"I think it's going to be a good competition," Trubisky said. "Foles has had a crazy career as well so it's been cool having him in our (quarterbacks) room talking ball. I know we're going to push each other.
"But I still feel like this is my team and I'm excited for the competition and just get back on the field with my guys and show everybody what I can still do and how hard I've been working this offseason to help the Bears win games this year."
Saying he wants to be the quarterback and doing it are, of course, different matters.
When last year ended, Bears coach Matt Nagy said he needed Trubisky to become a master of defenses in Year 3 of the offense.
"Definitely an emphasis for this year," Trubisky said. "I think just going back and watching every single snap during the last two seasons in this offense, and seeing the mistakes and what coverage it actually was versus what I was seeing on the field and where coach Nagy thought the ball should have went and where it actually went.
"Just fixing my mistakes in the film study and doing different visualization and communication things with coach to get us on the same page. Just watching a lot of film, correcting my mistakes and a better understanding of the offense. (Nagy) challenged me in that and I fully accepted it as wells as knowing the offense really, really well. I'm just watching a lot of film and studying it like the back of my hand. I'm excited to be a lot better in that area this year."
Gauging improvement is rather difficult when no one is actually practicing with coaches. Trubisky has been organizing regular throwing sessions with available Bears receivers on his own, but it's not the same.
"Yeah that's kind of tough," Trubisky admitted. "I think we'll really see once we get into training camp where we're at going against the defense but for me I've just been gauging improvement in how my body feels and how I'm throwing the ball on the field and how my understanding of the offense is so I just feel like everything that we installed over OTA's I've got it down pat."
Like every NFL team, the Bears held their OTAs virtually.
Players have raved about the way Trubisky is throwing now, but it seems like at this time every season they say the same thing.
"Oh, he's slinging it right now," running back Tarik Cohen said. "Still working fundamentals right now. Every year in the offseason you always start from the basics, so you start all over basically."
Cohen voiced confidence in Trubisky even if the rest of the football world seems to have abandoned ship long ago.
"You still see the talent in Mitch, he's still making throws on the run," Cohen said. "It's the normal Mitch you see when he’s playing at his best."
Trubisky feels what Cohen said he sees.
"The way the ball's coming out of my hand on the field and throwing with balance and great mechanics it feels really good," Trubisky said. "And then just where I'm at mentally so, but I guess none of that really matters until you get onto the field and you know you can perform and produce the way your team really needs you to produce. But you just try to push yourself as much as you can to get better every single day and hopefully those results will speak for themselves once we get to the season."
Twitter: BearDigest@BearsOnMaven
