Not everybody immediately bought into the decision of Matt Nagy to bench Mitch Trubisky on Sunday. After the strong 4th quarter he had against Detroit two weeks prior, why not let him finish the game? He’d already shown he could do it. The Chicago Bears head coach was steadfast though. It’d been 32 games together. He’d seen enough. The call was made to send in Nick Foles. A call Hall of Fame quarterback Steve Young didn’t agree with.
That decision was quickly validated when the veteran showed everybody that what happened in Jacksonville may not have been the whole truth. Foles threw three touchdowns in the 4th quarter and almost had five if not for a drop by Anthony Miller and Allen Robinson having a catch in the end zone overturned into an interception.
Young admitted it was a great performance, but was quick to caution the Monday Night Countdown crew that the Bears may have pulled the trigger too soon.
“I just think it’s too early. It’s been 12 padded practices. He won it in the preseason. This is the preseason of September. You’re now saying Nick Foles, you are our quarterback into the future.
If that’s the case? Go to it. But I think it’s too early. To give up on Mitch Trubisky completely when you have Nick Foles coming off the bench ready to go, lighting it up at any time during the season. In Week 4? I just feel like I’d want to wait until Week 12 to do that.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbyEIaaX55o&t=10s&ab_channel=PuPuRemake
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Steve Young is speaking from his own experience
One must understand where Young is coming from. He’s a former quarterback himself. He also had a slow start to his NFL career. There were two ugly seasons in Tampa Bay followed by another three spent as Joe Montana’s backup. He understands that not every quarterback can grasp the pro game as quickly as others. It sounds like he thinks Trubisky deserved a little more time to find a rhythm this season.
The thing is the Bears have waited for him to find a rhythm for the past year. He was miserable in 2019 after such a promising 2018. His start to this season wasn’t all that different. There were minor improvements but the inconsistencies were still there. This despite playing against some fairly average defenses.
Nagy knew what he saw. What he saw wasn’t good enough. So he made the switch.