Bears Mailbag -- What Is Matt Nagy Seeing In Nick Foles?

The Chicago Bears showed some fight (literally) in their latest loss -- a 26-23 overtime loss to the New Orleans Saints at Soldier Field.  Six days after their 24-10 drubbing at the hands of the Rams in LA, they built a lead, melted down as they gave it away, fought back, and lost anyway.  Here was my post-game thread:

They're 5-3 at the halfway point of the season, but they've lost two key NFC tiebreakers to teams whom they'll be competing against for the playoffs.  They should hope the Saints win the NFC South, because the Bears have the tiebreaker against their competition (the Tampa Bay Buccaneers). But things won't really matter unless the Bears get themselves together.  Discipline, details, and the offense overall remain a problem for Matt Nagy's team, and they have a tough date in Nashville this Sunday against an angry Tennessee Titans team. With that, let's reach into this week's Bears Mailbag.  Thanks to everyone who submitted questions!  I always appreciate the participation.  Follow me on Twitter @DhruvKoul to continue the conversation.

Bears Mailbag

Let me elaborate on this one a bit more.  We know what Mitch Trubisky is -- a bad processor who can't read the field and has spotty accuracy and spotty decision-making.  He's had many, many games to prove himself, and he hasn't.  The challenge, though, is that the Bears thought they were getting a steady, bona-fide, reliable veteran in Nick Foles, and he hasn't quite lived up to that billing so far. Let me be clear, Foles has directly contributed to two wins the Bears would not otherwise have -- Atlanta and Tampa Bay.  We don't know if Trubisky could've beaten Carolina, but Foles didn't do anything special in that game, per se.  The miscommunication, alignment, confusion, etc. issues that plagued the Bears' offense with Trubisky at QB are some of the same problems that are happening with Foles.  Some of that is on coaching, certainly, but the Bears expected Foles to help get the team aligned and ready much more smoothly and properly than he is. It's only been five starts for Foles, and he's 2-3 in his starts, but the offense has looked messy at best and downright destroyed at its worst.  There are rookies in the NFL who are looking much better at QB in their offenses than the Bears are with their veteran, Super Bowl MVP QB who knew the offense coming in.  That's bad! But does it merit a move back to Mitch?  There's an argument to be made, sure, but I don't think the Bears will do that and I don't blame them.  Here's why:  Trubisky is a free agent this offseason and he is NOT coming back.  The Bears need to know if Foles can be the guy in 2021 so the Bears can focus on reloading the offense (namely, the OL and skill positions with Allen Robinson likely on his way out, too).  If he *can*, great.  If he *can't*, then the Bears need a new QB urgently. So the Bears will likely keep giving Foles his chances.  And worst case, if the Bears miss the playoffs and there's a regime change in the offseason, then the new regime gets to reload this team (and the QB) the way they see fit.