Why did the Bears call up Bray? What's Trubisky's role on the sideline?
The Bears pulled third-string quarterback Tyler Bray up from the practice squad to the active roster Saturday. They promptly designated him inactive on Sunday.
It was a curious move. NFL teams don't make roster moves for no reason.
According to the 2020 collective bargaining agreement for this COVID-19 season, teams can bring up two additional practice squad players - essentially making it a 55-man roster instead of the usual 53. Those players automatically revert to the practice squad following the game.
The catch is that teams can do this only twice with any individual player. On the third time, the team has to terminate the player's practice squad contract and sign him to an NFL contract. At that point, the team could not simply drop him back to the practice squad after the game.
So why burn one of the two free promotions for Bray?
On Monday, Bears coach Matt Nagy said the Bears wanted Bray's voice in the mix on the sideline. Bray and staring quarterback Nick Foles were teammates in Kansas City and have a good working relationship. Bray has a solid understanding of Nagy's offense from his time in Kansas City and two-plus years with Nagy in Chicago.
Bray couldn't have been on the sideline if he were on the practice squad.
"Tyler's done a good job of understanding where we're at as an offense," Nagy said. "To be able to bring him up and kind of help Nick out as well, they have a really good relationship. Having him come up and just be a voice for [Foles], I think sometimes those are parts of the game that [are] nice to have."
Bray and Trubisky were in Foles' ear every time the offense came off the field. While the television broadcast liked to show Trubisky looking forlornly at the field, he was actually quite involved on the sideline when Foles and the offense came to the bench. Trubisky was frequently next to Foles as Foles reviewed the footage on his tablet. If he wasn't talking with Foles, Trubisky was talking with the offensive linemen or the receivers.
Trubisky stayed warm, too. During timeouts he threw passes with Foles and even once with cornerback Kyle Fuller.
"Mitch had a really good week of practice," Nagy said Monday. "He was great all week long. It was not an easy week for him. It's different all week long being in that role and he handled it great. Mitch was awesome on the sideline yesterday."