Does Trubisky’s success over the Detroit Lions support week 1 decision?
By Bob Heyrman
Although it is only a sample size, Mitchell Trubisky’s success against the Detroit Lions undoubtedly played a role in the Chicago Bears’ decision to name him the teams’ starting quarterback.
It comes as a bit of a surprise that Mitchell Trubisky was able to fend off the recently acquired former Super Bowl MVP, Nick Foles, to retain the starting quarterback gig for the Chicago Bears. I wonder how much of this decision from head coach Matt Nagy stems from how successful Trubisky has been facing the Detroit Lions throughout his career?
The decision to start Trubisky certainly didn’t come just because the Bears open their season in Detroit, but when Nagy saw that Detroit had been the teams’ first opponent, I’d bet giving Trubisky the nod over the high-priced Foles came a little bit easier.
If Nagy felt that both quarterbacks had performed at a similar level throughout the teams’ training camp, having the Detroit Lions first on the docket may have made the difference in his decision. Here’s the thing, though, why on earth did the Chicago Bears trade for Foles, who earns an average salary of $8 million per season.
The Bears restructured Foles’ deal after acquiring his services. Foles originally signed a four-year deal worth $88 million with the Jaguars and only lasted one season. Luckily for the Bears, the two-sides re-negotiated the deal and came up with a very reasonable average salary, despite his $17 million dead-cap number, which becomes the equivalent to job security.
The Bears added Foles, and he seemed destined to become the starter in Chicago automatically, but it won’t be in week one.
Trubisky owns a 3-0 career record against the Detroit Lions. Last season, the Bears signal-caller tossed for 511 yards and six touchdowns in a pair of victories over the Lions.
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Nagy also appointed long-time offensive mind Bill Lazor as the Bears’ new offensive coordinator. Nagy, an offensive-minded head coach, will certainly still play a significant role in the offensive game plan, play-calling, and decision making moving forward, but Lazor, who most recently called plays for the Bengals for two seasons in 2017 and ’18 will play a large role this season developing Chicago’s offensive identity. Last year Lazor served as an analyst for Penn State.