When the trade was announced back in March, a lot of people were confident that Nick Foles had the upper hand in the forthcoming quarterback competition against Mitch Trubisky. It’s not hard to imagine why. The guy won a Super Bowl in the style of offense the Chicago Bears run. He has ties to several coaches including Matt Nagy, Bill Lazor, and John DeFilippo. The three key figures who will decide how the competition goes.
Yet as the months have passed, it feels like confidence in Foles snatching the job has steadily waned. He’s reportedly absorbed the playbook extremely well and made an excellent first impression with teammates. However, he hasn’t met any of them in person. The quarterback remains trapped in Florida, unable to move his family or fly to Chicago due to COVID-19 restrictions. To say nothing of his wife recently having a baby.
All the while Trubisky has been staging workouts with teammates constantly. Even putting in time with renowned QB guru Jeff Christiansen. If that weren’t bad enough, the NFL dropped an even bigger hammer on Foles’ odds of winning the battle with a momentous decision. The NFL preseason would be shortened from four games to two.
Nick Foles has zero margin for error in this scenario
So let’s recap. Foles has read the playbook but has yet to practice a single play from it. It’s been over three months since he was traded to the Bears. Teammates have only spoken to him electronically. He hasn’t thrown a single pass to any of the receivers. He hasn’t communicated protections to his offensive linemen. His entrance to training camp on July 28th will be his first time actually stepping onto a field with them.
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Now the preseason, an avenue Nagy planned to use in order to flush out the competition, gets cut in half. Some even think it’ll eventually be removed altogether. This means Foles will have to somehow convince the coaching staff that he is the guy over Trubisky with nothing but camp practices and a couple of quarters (at best) of preseason action.
That is asking a lot. Nagy has said he fully intends to make this competition as fair as possible. Sadly the COVID-19 issue continues to set his plans on fire. Trubisky is leading the race already while Foles is stuck in the blocks. The preseason was his best hope to truly make a big impression. Now that hope just took a gigantic blow.