The battle is officially over: Mitch Trubisky will start under center for the Bears in 2020.
Matt Nagy announced the decision during his press conference on Sunday afternoon.
"Both these guys were really battling their tail off every single day and that's not easy," Nagy told reporters. "It's a lot easier when you know you have the job and you just play a little different 'cause it's always in the back of your mind. But to Mitch's credit and Nick's credit, the way they handled it, I was really proud of 'em for it. In the end, Mitch won the job and I think that that's very important for him, for us, for everybody to understand that he worked really hard to get to this point."
NFL Network's Tom Pelissero reported Friday that the team informed Trubisky he had won the starting job over Nick Foles, whom Chicago traded for in March.
The Trubisky-Foles QB competition remained one of the league's hottest stories right up to the end of training camp. After Nagy said last Saturday that he wouldn't name a starter prior to Week 1 against Detroit, it appeared that it would come down to whoever finished strongest over the last two weeks. It's clear Trubisky did what needed to be done to secure the spot.
While speaking on some of the thinking that went into the decision, Nagy said it was impressive to witness Trubisky's growth from the end of season until now. Nagy noted that Trubisky ended camp on a good note and put together some accurate throws, particularly in the red zone, and displayed better footwork and decision-making, areas he says the young QB steadily improved on throughout camp.
"You could feel the command," Nagy said. "I think the difference in the command that I felt and that our coaches felt was it's one where it's just 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 and I thought he improved there. So, for him, when he gets this opportunity like he has right now, you can just feel that he's ready to get out there and just really play hard for his teammates."
After a disappointing 2019 campaign, it's encouraging to hear that Trubisky, who Nagy says is "in a really good place right now" after performing well in camp, took on the task of competing with a Super-Bowl winning, veteran QB and came out on top. Now that he's on the other side of an eventful offseason, Trubisky admitted he gained appreciation for where he is now after this experience.
"Them not picking up my [fifth-year] option, bringing in competition, I truly believe that it was a part of my journey and something that I had to deal with in order to get better," he said. "I believe the way you deal with things is gonna determine how it builds you up and makes you better in the long run so I just accepted it as a challenge and it really pushed me every day mentally to just want to get better and want to prove everyone wrong and make sure that this was still my team at the end of the day.
"I think the way I just handled it and was respectful to everyone else and also just being so welcoming to Nick, just developing that relationship to help our team, I think everyone saw that and our teammates have just fed off that. It's been a rewarding journey but it's just one of the first steps and I believe that everything happens for a reason. We're just gonna try to keep getting better, myself included."
