What the Actual Bears QB Competition Looks Like

The shroud of secrecy around most NFL camps resulting from COVID-19 can lead to assumptions, false and otherwise.

When there are no preseason games and very little is allowed out in the way of video at Halas Hall training camp, it might be easy to get the wrong picture of how the Bears are conducting their quarterback competition.

For one, it's not going to be decided any time soon, but the process is progressing.

"So the quarterback competition timeline, I can tell (media) just to save you from the questions down the road here, it's not going to happen soon," coach Matt Nagy said. "We're going to take our time with it, so that's that part.

"And I understand that we all want to know right away. We do too. "But we want to use -- it's already a short training camp -- we want to be able to use as many reps as we can with them."

There is a science behind this and it needs to be applied. It's a science of fairness.

They don't throw the ball out on the field, send Mitchell Trubisky out for a certain number of plays with the first team and then Nick Foles with the second team, then flip it the next day.

How each is used in practice depends on a schedule involving the drills, who's on the field with them, and who's opposing them.

What they've done throughout most of practices is alternate quarterbacks between specific drills or practice segments rather than giving a quarterback all day long with the first team or all day long with the second team.

For instance, if Trubisky takes the first-team offense in 7-on-7, then Foles would be with the second team. The next time they run those drills, they would flip. If Foles has first-team snaps in full-squad scrimmage, then Trubisky would have them the next time.

At some points they'll hold 7-on-7 at one end of the field and at the other end of the practice field one-on-one red zone passing drills goes on with the other quarterback. Then they would flip positions for this work the next practice.

"So what we’re doing is we’re alternating each day as to who starts with the first group of that period, every period that we have, whether it's a team period, a 7-on-7 period, whether it's taking the first snap of individual (work), that quarterback, that will be his day," Nagy said.

Bill Lazor scripts practice ahead of time for the quarterbacks.

"We're trying to split up the reps as evenly as we can, and I think Bill Lazor is doing a great job, him and Rags (Dave Ragone) with doing that along with Flip (quarterbacks coach John DeFilippo)," Nagy said

DeFilippo described this as a totally even-handed approach.

"And coach Lazor has been uber-detailed and making sure if one guy gets '2-Jet All-Go.', the other guy gets '2-Jet All-Go,' " DeFilippo said. "And making sure it's not just equal reps, it's equal plays, where we can judge a guy's eyes, we can judge a guy's footwork on the same exact rep.

"So I credit that to coach Lazor and coach Rags and the way they've done the scripting piece of this thing to make it as fair as we can make it."

Coaches are mindful of keeping the repetitions the same with first and second team for both, and against the first- and second-team defense for both.

During controlled scrimmage, it's not as simple as first-team offense vs. second-team defense for a series. They set the specific yardage point for each series. Sometimes they're starting with a situation, like second-and-six at the 40 or first-and-goal at the 4.

"The big thing is going in there and executing the plays and focusing on the plays and getting better," Foles said. "And that's what we do. It's been good. I've enjoyed it."

The idea is to see as much situational football as possible from both.

After practices end, coaches pour over the practice film and when they have meetings the performance in previous practice is discussed so they're better able to ascertain why a passer went to a particular player facing a specific defense in a set down and distance.

"It's really important that their timing and their communication that they have in the meeting room is just such a great time, such a valuable time for them to be able to say, 'OK, I was thinking this, what were you thinking?' " Nagy said. "It's not where it needs to be yet but that's OK, we weren't expecting that."

Nagy doesn't like talking much to either QB during scrimmage time as either quarterbacks coach John DeFilippo, passing game coordinator Dave Ragone or offensive coordinator Bill Lazor take on this duty.

Nagy tries to observe with objectivity from a distance.

One of the few times he interjected was after Trubisky hit Jesper Horsted behind the defense in perfect stride 35 yards downfield during Saturday's scrimmage.

"I don't say a whole lot when I'm back there watching the O and D go," Nagy said. "I like to just kind of take it all in. But that was one where I got excited and told him I just thought it was a hell of a throw."

They need more great plays as this elaborate, detailed process continues, for however long that is.

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