Chicago Bears training camp: 5 Things we’ve learned so far

1. Who is the leader in the starting quarterback battle?

Now we get to the most important battle going on at training camp, the starting quarterback. Trubisky and Nick Foles are locked in battle.

At the start of the competition, Nagy said he wouldn’t shy away from being completely honest with both players about their performances. If one of them makes a bad throw he’ll let him know. However, if one makes a great throw he’ll make that be known as well.

Nagy made good on that promise. Trubisky made a great throw to tight end Jesper Horsted on the seam. Nagy spoke to reporters and pointed out that great throw. On the other hand, Trubisky made a critical error on a first-and-goal at the one-yard line. Trubisky dropped back, couldn’t find anyone open, then took off. He stepped out at the three. That is an error he cannot make, and Nagy called him out on it, via Bears Wire:

"Those are critical errors that we can’t have. He’s not going to do that again. He’s going to fix it and move on. That’s a situational play that we need to be 2nd-and-goal at the 1 and not 2-and-goal at the 3. He’ll fix that problem and move on and he’ll do better tomorrow."

On the first day of padded practice, Trubisky struggled. He went on to have two impressive outings. This is just like what he’s done in his career. He’s had some very good games in his career to go along with struggles. The inconsistencies are holding him back.

Foles hasn’t done much to put himself over Trubisky, though. Just like Trubisky, he’s made some good throws, but he hasn’t wowed the reporters in attendance. Again, we don’t know what the coaches are thinking, but right now things are close. No one has pulled very far ahead of the other.

The Chicago Bears signed Foles to push Trubisky. He has the chance to push past Trubisky and end up as a starter but the team, especially general manager Ryan Pace (who gave up a lot of draft capital to move up one spot to draft Trubisky), want Trubisky to be the guy if he can be the guy. If Foles is the winner, then the Bears will need to go out and draft another quarterback.

Not having preseason games makes the ultimate decision tougher to make. Late last week the team had game-like situations and that’s when Foles looked better than Trubisky. Trubisky has trouble processing when in a game situation.

If things continue like this then Trubisky will be the Week 1 starter against the Detroit Lions. He needs to really look bad or Foles has to look super good for the Bears to make a change. That hasn’t happened yet. Whatever happens, this battle will spill over into the regular season.