Nagy OK with brief altercations between Bears, Broncos during joint practice

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. - Things got a little saltier in Denver on Thursday during the Bears' and Broncos' second day of joint workouts, but both clubs avoided the kind of open warfare that's broken out among other NFL teams over the last week or so.

As Bears coach Matt Nagy saw it: "I think as you saw here the guys did pretty much a good job throughout the day in practice. It got a little spicy there with some of the guys, but I think that's just their competitive juices going. I think when you do these, you try to stick to two days and not three; I think the third day could get going a little bit."

Nagy was referring to brief altercations involving Bears wide receiver Anthony Miller, defensive back Deiondre Hall and tight end Colin Thompson and several Broncos players, but no punches were thrown and no damage was done.

After the Miller dustup, Nagy assembled his players and told them: "At some point, we're all men, and we're all brothers in this thing. So, as competitive and as much of an ego as you want to have and try to fight somebody, it's not worth it. There are injuries, and it just doesn't make sense. So I think the best way to handle it is just bring everybody together and just tell them that, right?"

I asked Nagy if a lot of it wasn't about trying to prove to coaches and teammates how tough and how committed players are.

"Yeah, they're probably trying to impress their teammates more than the coaches," Nagy said. "These are young kids out there, and they're trying to make teams. There are only 53 spots, so they're doing everything they can to show that they've got that grit and that fight in them and sometimes it just crosses the line. It was close, but we've got to teach them 'C'mon, limit it.'"

Trubisky gets testy:

Mitch Trubisky didn't appear to appreciate a question he got that started with the premise: "Preseason results don't matter."

Trubisky immediately fired back at the scribe, "I'm sorry?" and when the question was repeated, Trubisky said, "They don't matter? Then why do you guys talk about them so much?" After the writer in question responded: "I don't talk about them," Trubisky replied, "I doubt that. I doubt that."

After pausing for a moment to gather his thoughts Trubisky said, "100 percent, every snap matters. Every practice rep, every preseason game matters. We're coming out here and competing every day, and we're always trying to get better. No matter what it is, if it's on the practice field, if I'm in the backyard by myself, if it's a preseason game, we're trying to get better and we're trying to move the football.

"That's what great players do. That's what great teams do. We're trying to get some momentum and everybody do our job and execute the offense."

Broncos have a QB controversy:

It was announced earlier in the week that 2016 first-round pick Paxton Lynch was being demoted from Case Keenum's backup to third string, while 2017 seventh-round pick Chad Kelly would assume the backup role.

Asked Thursday if he was looking to add a veteran quarterback to the roster, Broncos general manager John Elway said: "We'll wait and see what happens. We'll wait through this week and see what happens and go from there. I feel like we still have time. At the end, guys continue to take their reps and we'll go from there."

Asked if he'd be giving any thought to bringing in Colin Kaepernick to back up Keenum after a failed attempt to trade for him in 2016 Elway said: "I said this a while ago - Colin had his chance to be here. We offered him a contract. He didn't take it. As I said in my deposition - and I don't know if I'm legally able to say this - he's had his chance to be here. He passed it."

While Kaepernick obviously won't be in Denver anytime soon, it seems clear Lynch is very close to being labeled a bust.

• Hub Arkush, the executive editor of Pro Football Weekly, can be reached at harkush@profootballweekly.com or on Twitter @Hub_Arkush.