Chicago Bears Plans For Their QB Competition Just Took a Big Hit

Matt Nagy must have the beginnings of a migraine at this point. The Chicago Bears head coach already had the herculean task of juggling his team's fluid schedule due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Something that has already knocked out minicamps and OTAs. He also has to arrange and execute the first legitimate quarterback competition the team has held since 1995.

Mitch Trubisky and Nick Foles both will get equal opportunities to win the starting job. The goal for Nagy is to make the battle as fair as possible. One avenue he'd hoped to use for this was the preseason in August. It would offer a good chance to put both guys in game action to see where they're at in the offense.

That plan may need to get wiped now. Or at least heavily modified. Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk has the latest.

"The NFL is set to announce that the first and fourth week of the preseason schedule has been scrapped, which doesn’t come as a great surprise given recent indications that things were moving in that direction.

One of the reasons for the change is to give teams more time to work on their own after losing on-field time this offseason due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Another is to cut down on travel amid that pandemic, although the move didn’t cut travel for four teams."

Chicago Bears may need to give the guys both entire games

The way things are structured, the Bears will head to Denver for a primetime matchup against the Broncos on August 22nd. Then they will return home to host the defending NFC champion 49ers at noon on August 29th. So if nothing else Trubisky and Foles will be tested against two well-coached defenses. This is of course presuming both of those teams play their starters in both games, which feels a bit unlikely.

This means Nagy will have to get creative with how he structures Bears practices in training camp. Namely a lot more 11-on-11 drills with the two starting units going against each other. Trubisky and Foles would then alternate as the starting QBs. Either that or Nagy has to consider alternating series during those preseason games. Something that isn't likely to generate believable results.

Facts are facts. The right decision just got a lot harder to reach.