Chicago Bears: Does short preseason help Mitchell Trubisky?

The Chicago Bears quarterback battle is more intense if the preseason is shorter.

The Chicago Bears‘ battle for the starting quarterback job just got more interesting. If recent rumored reports are true, the NFL will shorten the preseason games from four games down to just two.

This is just a rumor, with no decision being made yet or nothing being imminent, but considering how much life and sports in 2020 are upside down, this could be something that ends up happening. Everything is on the table. If true, this changes the quarterback battle immensely.

Ever since general manager Ryan Pace announced that the Bears would go into the 2020 season with Mitchell Trubisky as the starter it seemed like the opposite was true. The Bears overhauled the coaching staff, then went out and traded for Nick Foles, a player who is quite familiar with the new coaching staff and the system in place.

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If the preseason games are indeed cut, does this give someone an advantage? At first glance, one might think this gives Trubisky an advantage over Foles. Foles is the challenger so he has to rip the job from the incumbent’s hands. He has to make a big impression to take the job away, and it could be difficult to do so in such a short period of time.

Additionally, while Foles has the advantage of knowing and succeeding in head coach Matt Nagy’s system, he hasn’t run it with his receivers yet. This is something Trubisky has been doing in the offseason.

Let’s not underestimate Foles’ handling of the offensive system. He makes quick decisions so he gets rid of the ball quickly. That helps the offensive line and helps curtail the number of sacks. He understands where the receivers should be and gets the ball there.

Also, Foles has a better ability to read defenses than Trubisky does. Trubisky hasn’t been able to do that very well on the NFL stage and that, more than anything else, has hurt him. We saw how different the offensive blocking schemes were when James Daniels, a second-year player at center for the first time in the NFL, and Cody Whitehair, a much more experienced center.

The blocking was a mess with Daniels. Trubisky had to take a bigger role in calling the blocking scheme, but he had trouble doing it. With Whitehair, he doesn’t have to worry about that. Whitehair takes that pressure off him and we saw the blocking better in the second half of the 2019 season.

Foles helps with the blocking scheme. He understands what the defense wants to do by looking at it pre-snap. Pairing him with an experienced Whitehair will help improve the offensive line.

If the rumors become reality, the decision to pick a starter will depend heavily on how each quarterback does at practice more than in a game. Trubisky will start training camp working with the starters. He’ll have that advantage since he’s already worked with the receivers for a while now.

Trubisky needs to translate that on the field, however. We’ve heard about how well he performs in practices. Things are slowed down a bit in practice. The quarterback isn’t touched in practice so he has more opportunity to look around the field. Once he gets on the field, though, when defenses are going after him and things speed up, he gets into some trouble.

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When each quarterback gets his opportunity to play under center in a preseason game, he’ll stay there no matter what happens. The regular season is a different monster altogether, however. Even if Trubisky wins the starting job he’ll have a short leash because of his history.

In Foles, the Chicago Bears have a stronger backup than they had in Chase Daniel. Daniel could come in and help in the short-term but he was never someone the team could depend on as a starter. Foles can step in and start. He just may start Week 1.

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