If you haven’t noticed, the Bears still have a quarterback problem. Nick Foles has not been the upgrade over Mitchell Trubisky that he was supposed to be. Whatever he makes up in deep passes – which weren’t even connecting until Sunday against the Saints – he gives up in mobility and ability to avoid pressure.
There are many metrics that can be used to point out what is fairly obvious to the naked eye, but FiveThirtyEight’s quarterback ratings are particularly sobering because they have Foles ranked fifth among NFC North starters. That’s because Mitch Trubisky is actually ranked No. 3, behind Aaron Rodgers and Matthew Stafford and ahead of Kirk Cousins. Foles comes in behind all of them. FiveThirtyEight's ELO metric tracks historical data for each franchise, and the Bears’ ELO rating is now lower than where it was before the season started. Trubisky actually slightly increased the rating in the first two weeks of the season and it reached i’s 2020 peak when Foles took over in Week 3 and led the comeback in Atlanta. But ever since, it’s been downhill.
Perhaps most concerning is that the Bears continue to have pre-snap communication issues. Foles was sold to the Bears fanbase as a quarterback who knows Nagy’s system and could run it smoothly, even if his physical limitations held him back some. At a minimum, the operation of the offense is not supposed to be choppy and only so much can be pinned on the offensive line or limited offseason due to COVID-19. Clearly, the head coach is getting frustrated.
“That's what bothers me and that's what pisses me off is that there is still that issue going on,” Nagy said. “And excuse my French. We're reading it from a wrist band, so, you know, I'm struggling with that right now. It's getting you into a hole so that has to change.”
Fixing the pre-snap communication issues is on Foles and Nagy. As Troy Aikman made very clear on the FOX broadcast Sunday, watching the Bears’ offense is “frustrating” because almost nothing seems easy. Perhaps things need to be simplified, which we frequently talked about with Trubisky.
Foles can also make post-snap improvements. There are two very noticeable problems on tape – one that can be fixed and one that can’t. He’s just not very mobile or elusive. That can’t be fixed. But he also drifts backwards too much and doesn’t step up in the pocket enough. That’s likely a result of not trusting the protection on the interior of the offensive line, but it also makes the tackles more vulnerable on the outside and leads to inaccurate throws.
“It's hard for those tackles if you do keep (backing up),” Nagy said. “I know that Nick is trying his damnedest to try to push up in the pocket and do different things. But that is a big part of that. And he'll be hard on himself on when he's doing it and not doing it, where his eyes are when the ball is coming out, where the accuracy is of the throws, his decision-making, etcetera. And then when the ball comes out, are we making catches and protecting? It all needs to be in unity. Right now, there's just a little bit of that off, which is a reflection of how we're going on offense.”