The ‘why' behind Matt Nagy sitting Bears starters? About 2,000 reasons?

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It is a decision which will only be affirmed or contradicted by what transpires once the 2018 regular season begins. Maybe not even then. Mitchell Trubisky and the bulk of the Bears’ starters on both sides of the football being deactivated strikes one as similar to a team getting time off before, say, a playoff game. If they come off the break strong, it’s because they were rested; if they are poor, it’s because they were rusty.

Meaning: If a healthy Bears quarterback and offense go into Green Bay and light up the Packers on Sept. 9, the decision to sit Trubisky and the offense will be the way of the future in a sport where injuries alter franchise histories. If the Bears go on to the playoffs, nobody’s No. 1 offense will play in the third preseason game. And if the Bears don’t do either, missed playing time in the third preseason game probably won’t be the reason. Just a guess there.

And coach Matt Nagy made clear that the decision had nothing to do with any specific concern over injury, something that has bedeviled recent Bears teams.

“We’re just at the spot right now where we’re lucky to be where we’re at,” Nagy said. “I love the growth as a team and as a family. I feel strong that when we go into Week 1 that those 25-30 plays aren’t going to sway [the Green Bay game] one way or the other. It’s really not.

“If we win that game against Green Bay, trust me, it wasn’t because we didn’t play those 25. If we lose it, same thing, I promise you that.”

But in the meantime the move by the Bears to sit Trubisky and most of the No. 1 offense for Saturday’s game against the Kansas City Chiefs was somewhat novel, but also understandable from the perspectives of Nagy and his staff.

Tom Brady, Kirk Cousins, Case Keenum, Eli Manning, Cam Newton, Alex Smith, Matthew Stafford, Russell Wilson – they all started, but not Mitch Trubisky. Brady played 30 snaps against Carolina. Nagy mentor Andy Reid started and played starter Pat Mahomes, with one rookie start last year, played into Saturday’s third quarter. (Of course, Newton did get an eye injury and a concussion scare in the Carolina win over the Patriots, so, OK… .)

Nagy pointed out, however, that his team’s veterans had an extra minicamp because of the team hiring a new coach; an extra week of practice because of playing the Hall of Fame game; two intense practices against the Broncos in Denver before the previous game; and an uptempo practice routine.

The result was a Bears team that Nagy said has already played some 2,000 “team” snaps (about double the normal full-season play load).

“So for somebody to tell me that 25 to 30 [preseason] reps is going to make him a better player Week 1, Week 2, Week 3,” Nagy said, “it’s not going to happen.” 

The plan all week was to look at sitting Trubisky and multiple starters, so the group was given extra reps in practice (one padded). Nagy called Chiefs coach Andy Reid ahead of the game and let Reid know that the Bears would open with their No. 2’s. “I felt a lot better when I did that,” Nagy said.

Said Reid: “[Nagy] gave me the heads up when I was getting on the plane yesterday. So I had an idea. Probably smart on his part.”

Clearly Nagy and his staff felt that substantial progress had been made and the risk-reward math of a preseason start, weighing the added experience against the threat of injury and/or fatigue, did not add up to most starters playing on Saturday. It also suggests that Nagy and his staff feel comfortable evaluating practice reps against the scale of actual game reps.

“They give us a crazy amount of reps and it gives us a chance to see everything,” said running back Benny Cunningham. “I feel like we all go with Coach’s decision and I think it’s the right decision.”

Value of preseason?

“I have no issue at all with five preseason games,” Nagy said, likely not speaking entirely for the feelings of all his players. “We get to check out the depth on our team.”

The value of preseason games is always an eminently debatable topic. So is how much Trubisky stood to gain from a half-plus of football. But if there’s no benefit, why play him or any other starter in preseason, for that matter? That’s for another occasion.

In Trubisky’s case, he started 12 games as a rookie, which isn’t all that many fewer than Mike Glennon had (18) when he came to the Bears, and Glennon hadn’t had an actual start in going on three calendar years.

A complicating factor for Trubisky in particular is that he is not returning into a system in which he has operated for any appreciable length of time. The Nagy offense is Trubisky’s third different one in three years, beginning at North Carolina, then to the Bears and Dowell Loggains last year, and now the Nagy iteration.

If there has been something to suggest that Trubisky and the No. 1 offense has gotten operationally settled in the new system and schemes of Nagy and coordinator Mark Helfrich, it has been difficult to see, at least in results. And improvement from last season? Also fuzzy.

By the numbers through his two starts, Trubisky was a pedestrian 11-for-18 passing, a 61.1 percent completion rate slightly better than that of his rookie regular season (59.4). His average of 5.2 yards per attempt is significantly down from his 6.6 rookie YPA, and his 70.1 passer rating represents a decline from the 77.5 mark that ranked him 28th among qualifying passers.

Trubisky was intercepted at a surprising rate in training camp practices, which may not matter but suggest that something wasn’t as it was drawn up. The explanation was that coaches wanted Trubisky to push the ball in some situations, which is certainly a sound developmental plan, but the fact that the efforts were too often unsuccessful hinted that additional work was in order.

Preseason games similarly don’t ultimately count for anything, but in six possessions with Trubisky, the No. 1 offense has generated exactly one score plus a missed field goal. In the Denver game the unit drove 51, minus-5, 75 and 37 yards, with the final drive ending in an interception when running back Tarik Cohen broke off a crossing route prematurely.

It is not the first time that coaches’ handling of Trubisky has been noteworthy. The John Fox staff was roundly questioned for not only playing Trubisky in the fourth preseason game, but also for starting him, playing him into the second quarter, then, after Conor Shaw was injured, re-inserting Trubisky for the finish and dropping him back in three of five final snaps in a game with the Bears trailing 25-0.

And this was at the end of a preseason in which a rookie Trubisky completed nearly 68 percent of his passes for three touchdowns, zero interceptions and an August rating of 106.2.

But that was then, this is now, and “this was just me knowing the pulse of our team,” Nagy said. “I know this team better than anybody right now. And I feel strong about that. I know our players.”

 

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