The moment his organization traded for Super Bowl hero Nick Foles in March, Chicago Bears coach Matt Nagy knew he needed a plan.
Not just to get the Bears back to their winning ways following an 8-8 season in 2019, but for handling something that pro football coaches especially hate: the dreaded “quarterback controversy.”
Having one of those, Nagy knew, threatened to make the ensuing showdown between Foles and returning starter Mitchell Trubisky a sideshow. So for the past five months, the Bears’ third-year coach has approached the decision with the care it demands, thinking long and hard about the structure of the competition and even asking his good friend and mentor, Kansas City Chiefs coach Andy Reid, about the best way to organize it.