Bears' Nick Foles excited for 'open competition' with fellow QB Mitchell Trubisky

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CGI_Ram

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There was side chatter on this when the signing happened, but no topic.

What are the Bears thinking? I get competition for Trubisky, but seemed a good offseason to find that via FA.

Jags got bailed out of that contract, and a pick!



Bears' Nick Foles excited for 'open competition' with fellow QB Mitchell Trubisky

Nick Foles is excited by the prospect of competing to be the Chicago Bears' starting quarterback after the team confirmed it would hold an "open competition" at the position.

The Bears brought in Foles in a trade with the Jacksonville Jaguars, dealing a fourth-round draft selection for the man who guided the Philadelphia Eagles to a victory in Super Bowl 52.

That move piled the pressure on incumbent starter Mitchell Trubisky, whose job is now under threat three years after he was drafted No. 2 overall by general manager Ryan Pace.

Foles, 31, has already spoken to Trubisky and hopes they can put the team first going into training camp.

"The opportunity to be a full-time starter and do those things is something any player would love to do in the right situation," Foles told reporters. "It's an opportunity I'm excited for.

"Mitch and I have already talked and we want to start out on the right foot. Ultimately, it's all about what’s best for the Chicago Bears."

Pace and coach Matt Nagy have praised the way Trubisky has taken to the challenge of Foles' arrival.
"With the addition of Nick Foles, it's exactly what we talked about from the start — we want to create competition," Pace said. "We've talked to both players and it's an open competition. We understand the focus is on the quarterback position.

"It's been a focus for us with the addition of Nick Foles. We've increased competition at a critical position, we talked to both players, and credit to both those guys for embracing it."

Nagy believes the blame for Trubisky being unable to hit the heights of other QBs in the early stages of his NFL career should be shared.

"What we're trying to do is what's best for the Chicago Bears, plain and simple," he said. "You could feel how much of a competitor Mitch is. He's embracing it and he's excited to get back to work.

"Part of the conversation we discussed, too, was understanding the big picture. I know Mitch gets a lot of this, but we could have been a lot better coaching, schematically. I could have been a better head coach. And then as we all know, we can all be better as players around him as well. That's the focus there.

"Mitch has had an unbelievable personality throughout it. All he wants to do is be the best quarterback he can be for the Chicago Bears. And when we walk in on the first day, whenever it is, Mitch will be first in the huddle."
 

CGI_Ram

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Bears' desperate trade for Nick Foles makes their Mitchell Trubisky problem even worse

The Bears made a horrendous quarterback signing in 2017 before they traded up to draft Mitchell Trubisky No. 2 overall. Move over, Mike Glennon deal, because the Nick Foles trade is just as bad. Consider it even worse, actually considering the Bears forgot their own recent history and were doomed to repeat it.

Chicago's coaching staff last season danced around the fact that it didn't believe in Trubisky as the team's starting quarterback. Confirmation that the Bears wanted to give him competition came early in NFL free agency with rumors of their interest in Teddy Bridgewater and others.

The Bears' ultimate decision was to send a fourth-round compensatory pick to the Jaguars for Foles. Regardless of the terms of Foles' restructured deal in Chicago, it's a bad decision.

While Jacksonville gets bailed out of its atrocious Foles signing, Chicago is now back to QB limbo. One would think the Bears had learned their lesson about overpriced, recycled QB options when they doled out $45 million over three years for Glennon only three years ago.

Instead, their accelerated desperation serves as an unofficial declaration of drafter's remorse on Trubisky and caused them to go back down the same path. We get that Foles worked with coach Matt Nagy in Kansas City when Nagy served as the Chiefs' offensive coordinator in 2016. After that, Foles returned to the Eagles and became a super-sub who won Super Bowl 53 MVP.

But as has been the case with the Foles — whether he's with the Jaguars, Chiefs or Rams — when he's not either the young starter or seasoned backup, he's not very good.

Foles gave Jacksonville very little return on its investment after breaking his collarbone in Week 1. In his four Jaguars starts, he went 0-4 with a shaky 84.6 passer rating while throwing for only 6.3 yards per attempt. The biggest memory from his time with the Jags is how it gave rise to the mustachioed mania surrounding rookie Gardner Minshew.

On the surface, the Bears will sell this as simply bringing a veteran to battle and push Trubisky. But everyone outside of Chicago knows Trubisky just became a lame-duck first rounder whose fifth-year option won't be picked up.

The Bears saw regression from Trubisky in 2019 after a promising initial season with Nagy in 2018 that saw him go 11-3, rate 93.4 and help lead the team to the NFC North title. With the defense not as dominant last season, the Bears needed more from Trubisky. Unfortunately, he gave them much less as a passer and didn't do enough as a runner to bail himself or the offense out.

While that happened, the Vikings and Lions saw career-best play from Kirk Cousins and Matthew Stafford. The Packrs' Aaron Rodgers was still Aarron Rodgers, only with a running game and defense on which to lean. Minnesota and Green Bay made the playoffs. Chicago did not.

The Bears have been the have-nots at quarterback in the NFC North for a long time, with the Jay Cutler era providing only a slight respite. They felt Trubisky would change all of that as a franchise passer. But then they saw him fade hard while the two first-round QBs taken after him, Patrick Mahomes and Deshaun Watson, have since had a meteoric rise to elite status.

It's fine for the Bears to be out on Trubisky, but going for Foles to try to replace him puts them in quarterback purgatory. He is not the caretaker type like Andy Dalton. He is not the high-ceiling playmaker like Cam Newton. He is something else when not with the Eagles — not very good, and certainly not much of an upgrade over Trubisky.

Even without a first-round pick in 2020, the Bears would have been better off targeting a rookie to compete with Trubisky, using one of their two second-rounders (No. 43, No. 50). Foles won't take them where they want to go as their starter, a bridge quarterback to nowhere.

Bringing in Foles with Trubisky doesn't give the Bears any real QB solution. The move doubles down on their recent problems at the game's most important position.
 

den-the-coach

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Wow, Foles with Trubisky....If I was Head Coach Matt Nagy I would draft Jake Fromm in the 4th round and go with him.
 

Ram65

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Part of an article on Foles and Bears. At least the coaching staff knows Foles. The Bears put themselves in a bad spot by wasting an early pick and drafting Trubisky. If Nagy and his staff scheme to Foles strengths maybe they can compete against the Packers. It would have been better if they didn't have to pay Foles as much as they do. The new deal is not good for Bears,




How could Foles fit with the Bears?
Comfort level is everything in the NFL. Nagy coached Foles in Philadelphia and Kansas City. Bears assistants Bill Lazor (offensive coordinator), John DeFilippo (quarterbacks coach) and Juan Castillo (offensive line coach) all overlapped with Foles when he played for the Eagles. Nagy knows everything he needs to know about Foles, and vice versa. That’s particularly important this spring with the uncertain timing of offseason programs due to the coronavirus outbreak. Foles also won a Super Bowl running a similar scheme to what Nagy has tried to run in Chicago. Those credentials help, too.
 

Memento

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Meanwhile, Mitchell Trubisky is sobbing in a corner, knowing that he'll lose his job and never get it back unless Foles is either injured or ineffective.