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Judging Bears QB Battle No Simple Matter for Matt Nagy

It's not all most yards and most points in preseason games or scrimmage for coaches when they sit down to analyze who won the quarterback battle between Mitchell Trubisky and Nick Foles

Gauging the battle for starting Chicago Bears quarterback will be a complex matter.

To fans, determining a winner in the quarterback derby between Nick Foles and Mitchell Trubisky might seem as simple as looking at stat sheets and the scoring column in preseason or scrimmages.

It's not, said Bears coach Matt Nagy during a conference call with media.

Nagy will have plenty of ways to measure success in this quarterback derby not involving statistics.

"To me, you can sense it, you feel it, the efficiency, the productivity within the special situations that you have," Nagy said. "Is it base first or second down? Are you making the correct adjustments at the line of scrimmage to pick up a blitz? How accurate are you on specific throws? Are you playing smart in the red zone? What's your mentality, what's your communication like at the line of scrimmage with the wide receivers when you're going two-minute, no huddle? And then how are you handling the coaching, right?"

The two quarterbacks were to speak with media on Thursday, the first interview session for Trubisky with media since the Bears decided against picking up his fifth-year contract option and also since they traded for Nick Foles. Actually, it was slated to be Trubisky's first press conference since the 2019 regular season.

However, the press conference has been canceled with a promise by Bears media to make the players available during the offseason program later in the month. The emotional week of work at Halas Hall in the wake of national racial strife was cited.

The COVID-19 pandemic has kept the team from holding regularly scheduled organized team activity work, which includes offense against the defense without pads. 

As a result, Nagy said one of the key criteria for judging the quarterbacks is being removed from the equation to an extent. In particular, this affects Trubisky.

"And then the next part, and this is probably the most challenging part with where we're at with losing out on the offseason is, is there improvement? You know?" Nagy said. "There's going to be a bad day. Shoot, everybody has bad days. But do you respond to that, or are these bad days, are there three bad days in a row whereas somebody else has three good days in a row? So that’s how you’ll do that."

The remainder of the plan might seem less vague.

"Like I said, preseason games, reps, playing more, creating more reps, having the ability to have both those quarterbacks play with the same wide receivers and tight ends against the same defenses, that's going to be important," Nagy said. "I do believe it'll naturally happen.

"I feel good with that. We have a good plan. And they understand it."

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