After two practices, here's what we know about Bears QB battle

Every time someone asks Matt Nagy or Ryan Pace about their quarterback competition, their first or second instinct is to remind them there are competitions for starting jobs at tight end, guard, cornerback, safety and maybe even another spot or two as well.

It's true, it's fair and it is very important.

But it doesn't change the fact that, at the end of the day, the Bears' ability to improve on last year's 8-8 campaign is going to come down to improvement under center.

As critical as that makes the QB battle, is it really an open competition for the starting job, or do Nagy and Pace already know who its going to be and are they using the battle more for motivation than discovery?

I believe it is possible either Mitch Trubisky or Nick Foles could be the starter on opening day. But reality is Trubisky had a huge edge going in, even before COVID-19 radically slanted the playing field. A thorough look at Nick Foles' career reveals all of his significant success has come from being the backup QB on opening night.

Nonetheless NFL management types and coaches can be as fickle a group as life has to offer, so two padded practices into a tightly compressed training camp what have we learned so far?

To my eye, Trubisky has been much sharper, more accurate and more convicted in his decision-making than Foles has in the early going.

Again, that had to be expected with Trubisky entering his third year with most of his teammates while Foles is still matching names to faces.

While Foles is familiar with his coaches and their schemes, Trubisky has been studying this playbook, new to Foles, for the last two years.

Good luck getting Nagy to offer any insight yet.

“There are so many details that go into it, the Bears head coach said. It's not as simple as just dropping back and trying to find the open guy per se.

“And so, we're just trying to make sure that the way we coach it, the way that he (Foles) learns it and Mitch learns it and Tyler learns it, we're all seeing the same thing.

“So we're getting lots of stuff on tape, we're watching video, and within that time, we get together and we evaluate where those guys are at.”

Nagy did offer a conditional endorsement of Trubisky's improvement when asked if he's ahead of last year.

“Yes, so far, I think so.

“I wish I could tell you we had enough. But there's just not enough with where we're at. We need to see more.

“But again, the mental side of it, decision making, where he's going — so far, so good.

“They're both competing the right way.”

New quarterbacks coach John DiFilippo, who has coached Foles before, but is new to Trubisky, did say he was happy with the steps Trubisky is taking from day-to-day.

“That's fair, that's totally fair, DiFilippo said. “I would agree with that statement. It's just the decision-making piece of it is knowing the offense.

“And it's obviously easier to make quick decisions when you know the offense.”

There is also this about Trubisky early in camp from veteran teammate Cordarrelle Patterson.

“He actually looks like a whole new player this year, man, I just see it in his eyes,” Patterson said.

“Each and every day, he's got that fire on him. It brings the best out of everybody, so I'm excited.

“We'll see what him and Nick can do competing for that job.”

While that's certainly not an indictment of Foles, it is a fairly strong endorsement of Trubisky.

I know, I know — it's early and the competition has just begun.

But the fact is with opening day just 25 days away, no exhibition games and almost no live action at all to provide more answers before it gets here, it is also getting very late if Foles is to catch up.

In spite of all the drama and hype that accompanied Foles' arrival, common sense tells us this has always been Trubisky's job to lose and we've seen nothing so far to suggest that's likely to happen, at least not before opening day.