Rest assured. Conducting a quarterback competition is not easy. It requires a lot of planning and logistics by a coaching staff to ensure it’s fair and balanced. Every snap in practice must be accounted for. So trying to imagine how much tougher things are for Matt Nagy this year. Not only does he have to juggle the Mitch Trubisky vs. Nick Foles thing. He has to do it in an offseason thrown into chaos by COVID-19.

Organized Team Activities? Gone. Rookie and veteran minicamps? Canceled. Those practice reps would’ve been precious in the evaluation process. This is undoubtedly why Nagy said he plans to go against his original stance by playing starters more in the preseason. He regretted not doing so in 2019. Now it’s become a necessity with only training camp to offer a chance to knock off the offseason rust.

Except even that plan is about to get thrown for a loop. According to Tom Pelissero of NFL Network, there is a growing movement around the NFL to shorten the preseason from four games to two. This is an effort to get back some of those practice reps lost in OTAs and minicamps. Not to mention refining COVID-19 test procedures.

While an understandable precaution, it’s another headache for the Bears to deal with.

The NFL and NFLPA are discussing the possibility of shortening the 2020 preseason, per sources.

Nothing finalized or imminent, but multiple team executives informed of talks currently believe they could end up playing two preseason games, rather than four.

— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) June 10, 2020

Shortening the preseason would allow for a longer “ramp-up” period, regardless of whether players agree to report a week or two early, and provide extra time for medical experts to finalize game-day protocols for testing, etc. More at the top of the hour on @nflnetwork

— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) June 10, 2020

Mitch Trubisky vs. Nick Foles could be decided in two halves

It’s difficult to determine exactly how Nagy will handle this. Training camp will have some extra time, so that helps. However, the preseason situation becomes more complicated. How does he handle snaps for Foles and Trubisky with just two games to work with? It seems like the only logical option is giving each of them one first half of each game where they play with fellow starters. Then let Tyler Bray play out the second halves with the reserves.

It makes sense from a technical standpoint. Still, it doesn’t exactly leave a ton of wiggle room. It’s like going from a best-of-three series to a single-elimination tournament. If either Trubisky or Foles can’t deliver in that first opportunity, it could cost them everything. So yeah. Not ideal. Then again it’s not like they have a choice. This is the hand they’re being dealt. They better handle it as best they can.