Who Will Lead the Chicago Bears? Week 1 Starting QB Predictions & Odds

• Tough for the Chicago Bears to give up on their current starting quarterback, Mitchell Trubisky, their first pick of the 2017 draft (2nd overall) who has had two winning seasons and one playoff appearance in the three years he’s been under center for them.
• Trubisky’s weak 2019 season didn’t help, posting a passer rating of 83, which makes him among the worst starters in the NFL that season.
• Enter competitor Nick Foles, the perennial backup quarterback the Bears just acquired from the Jaguars in exchange for the compensatory fourth-round draft pick they were awarded by the NFL.
• And rounding off the 2020 QB competition in Chicago is 28-year old Tyler Bray, the on-again-off-again man under center for the Bears practice squad since 2018.

The battle to be the Chicago Bears starting quarterback in 2020 is definitely heating up, with the three main candidates being their struggling current starter, Mitchell Trubisky, the newly acquired Nick Foles, who has been searching for a permanent home, and Tyler Bray, the longshot from their practice squad.

The Bears have only played football in January once since the 2011 season, and that was under current head coach Matt Nagy in 2018 when Chicago went 12-4, won the NFC North but lost to the Philadelphia Eagles in the Wild Card game.

Fans in Chicago were begging for Trubisky to be benched last season due to his poor play, but the Bears have only brought in Foles and Bray to (maybe) solve that problem, so we take a look at the predictions and odds of who will be the Chicago Bears Week 1 starter in 2020.

Odds taken May 8 from DraftKings Sportsbook

Foles is the odds-on favorite here to win the starting job in Chicago, but in order for him to be their long-term solution he would have to prove he can stay healthy for a full season.

It must be difficult to be the current starting quarterback but lag way behind in the odds, a challenge Trubisky will no doubt use to inspire him during the upcoming quarterback competition in training camp.

Bray will be lucky to make the team, but if he puts on a good show in training camp, he can at the very least ensure himself another season on the team’s practice squad.

Nick Foles Has a Habit of Getting Injured

In the first quarter of the first game of the 2019 season in Jacksonville, Foles as the starter went down with what turned out to be a broken left clavicle that required surgery and time off the field.

Foles did return from injured reserve by Week 13, but he and Jags backup Gardner Minshew traded time under center, with Foles losing all four of the games he started last year, completing 77-of-117 passes for 736 yards and 3 touchdowns with 2 interceptions in that short time.

The obvious concern is that Foles’ shoulder is prone to injury (shoulder injuries also caused him to miss playing time in 2018 and 2014) and currently he has been given a 34.8 % chance of injury in 2020 by the Sports Injury Predictor site.

Mitchell Trubisky Did Not Look Good in 2019

The Bears went from being a 12-4 playoff team in 2018 to being an 8-8 third place NFC North also-ran, and many attribute their rapid decline to Trubisky’s play.

At times during 2019, Trubisky did not look much like an NFL quarterback, scrambling in panic and making ill-advised throws (he’s had 22 interceptions in the last two seasons), none of which did much to instill confidence in his ability to lead the team.

Instead of improving with reps the way most young NFL quarterbacks develop, Trubisky’s play has deteriorated in his three seasons, so that trend has to do a total 180 if he hopes to have any chance to compete for the starting job in 2020.

Don’t Count Out Tyler Bray

Bray looks like an NFL quarterback – 6’6”, 223-pounds – and plays like one during the preseason, but his lack of regular season starting experience makes him the longshot here.

But Bray can play – last preseason, in the games Bray played he posted an 85.8 rating after completing nearly 62 percent of his passes for 608 yards, two touchdowns, and one interception, so he can absolutely ball.

Regardless, it will take a lot more miracles in the preseason for Bray to even make the Bear’s 53-man roster, let alone be named the starter.

Pick: Take Foles in this competition, because Trubisky’s run in Chicago looks to be all but over.