Report: Bears to name Trubisky as starting QB

The Chicago Bears are expected to name Mitch Trubisky as the team's starting quarterback, ESPN's Adam Schefter first reported Friday evening.

The Bears open the season on the road Sept. 13 at the Detroit Lions.

Trubisky has been in an open competition with Nick Foles during training camp, which wrapped up Thursday at Halas Hall. The Bears were off Friday and must finalize their 53-man roster today.

Coach Matt Nagy previously had said he expected to publicly announce a decision on the starting QB early next week and hinted Thursday that he would possibly tell his team Sunday.

Trubisky, the second-overall pick in the 2017 draft, is coming off a disappointing 2019 season in which he threw for 3,138 yards with 17 touchdowns and 10 interceptions in 15 starts.

The Bears acquired Foles from the Jacksonville Jaguars in March for a fourth-round pick. In April, general manager Ryan Pace said the starting QB job would be decided with an "open competition."

The team moved forward with those plans, but they were complicated when the COVID-19 pandemic wiped out all offseason activities and all four preseason games.

Trubisky and Foles split snaps throughout training camp, trading off which quarterback threw to the starters and which worked with the No. 2s.

"It keeps it consistent," Nagy explained early in camp. "We're trying to split up the reps as evenly as we can."

While Trubisky will get the start in Week 1, it doesn't mean the Bears can't turn to Foles if Trubisky struggles once again.

But this is an undeniably important season for the Bears and Trubisky. The team declined to pick up his fifth-year option after the 2019 season, meaning he will be a free agent after the 2020 campaign.

Beyond the long-term implications, the Bears also have, at least on paper, the type of defense to keep the team in contention this season. Foles, a former Super Bowl MVP who knows Nagy's system, could quickly find himself under center if Trubisky fails to seize the opportunity.