Matt Nagy's Explanation: Mitchell Trubisky Has Simply Improved

There were plenty of factors involved in the decision coach Matt Nagy made to give the starting quarterback job to Mitchell Trubisky over Nick Foles, but general improvement as a player was the bottom line

Bears coach Matt Nagy gave an answer Mitchell Trubisky's harshest critics might struggle to believe.

Trubisky has won the starting quarterback battle over former Super Bowl MVP Nick Foles because he has improved.

"In the end, Mitch won the job," Nagy said. "And I think that's very important for him, for us, for everybody to understand that he worked really hard to get to this point.

"We know that we all, in a lot of different areas, struggled in 2019. And so what I think was most impressive, from the end of the season until this past weekend was to be able to see some of the growth in practice and off the field that Mitch had. He decided to just control what he can control, he didn't worry about distractions, he didn’t worry about other competition."

Nagy on Sunday explained his decision on the starting quarterback battle which actually came out on Friday, and said Trubisky's win resulted from better play and not necessarily other reasons or failures on Foles' pa.

"For him, he really, I thought he really finished strong, which was good," Nagy said. "To finish strong with some really accurate throws in the red zone, he did some things. I told you all along his footwork has been much better in the pocket, in regards to staying up in that pocket and hitching up there. Decision-making has been improved.

"So we're always working to try to get that better, and he knows that. You could feel the command. And I think the difference in the command that I felt, and that our coaches felt, was, it's one where it's very natural. It wasn't made up. It wasn't being told from somebody how to act. It was just very organic. And you can tell that with guys, when they are natural with that. I thought he improved there."

The job is decided, and even though Nagy wanted nothing to do with talk this is a week-by-week situation, he added of Trubisky's improvement: "Now, with that said, right, he knows and we know together, we need to do that on game day."

The decision was known to Trubisky after a long conversation in Nagy's office. With Nagy taking so long to explain it and praising him constantly in his talk, Trubisky was getting worried there was a "But" coming somewhere and that Nagy was naming Foles the winner.

There wasn't.

"I was just excited and anxious throughout the whole talk for him to get to the point and see where we're at," Trubisky said. "It's just the first step in my goal for this season.

"It was a good battle the whole time. I can't say enough about how Nick handled the whole thing, how I handled the whole thing. It was a tough situation to be in, but I think we helped each and we pushed each other every day."

Nagy's description of a more comfortable and at-ease Trubisky in the pocket didn't surprise his quarterback.

"It's just taking exactly what you do in practice and make sure it's translating into the game," Trubisky said. 'I spent a lot of time this offseason doing footwork, a lot of drills in the pocket, moving around defenders, keeping my feet set, and then just finishing with balance. And that's allowed me to be more consistent and more accurate, and I just feel like I've gotten a lot better in that area. And that's what I need to focus on, coming from last year to this year, staying in the pocket, moving as little as possible but still keeping my base and footwork to allow just accurate and consistent throws."

Foles had faced a difficult task winning the job after only 16 practices in the offense due to COVID-19 restrictions.

"And that's where when you lose the preseason games and you lose some of the OTAs, you lose some of that evaluation process," Nagy said.

An "expedited process" was the way Foles described it earlier.

"I felt good out there, was myself," Foles said. "Was I like where I want to be, no, I wasn't, but that's not based on footwork or anything else, that's based on the other circumstances that are out of your control, where you are moving your family, you're with a new offense and you're with new players.

"You normally get a great time in the spring to go through OTA practices and get those cobwebs out. That's not an excuse, that's just a reality of it all. But I embrace that every single day. Every day I get more and more comfortable, understanding what the coaches want from the offense, having those conversations."

Foles talked about continuing to improve but has been in this backup role often in his career. And often he has wound up starting.

"I feel like it was a solid training camp," Foles said. 'Obviously the goal now is to continue to improve as a player and continue to as we go through game plans is to see how the coaches want to attack defenses and get ready to play."

Nagy knows critics of Trubisky will want to spin it as a week-by-week situation and Foles is actually the better player. He urged all to give Trubisky a chance.

"There's a lot of bad stories out there," Nagy said. "There's a lot of negativeity out there. And so here we are in a profession where there can be a lot of good stories. I just think to me, like, you know, you have an opportunity here to have a really really cool story.

"Is it going to happen I don't know. But you have somebody that's been through a lot in the sports world, had some highs and has had a lot of lows and he's worked his tail off to try to win this job and have an opportunity to prove a lot of people right."

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