The Bears won’t definitively say whether quarterback Mitch Trubisky will return for Sunday’s game against New Orleans, but, to borrow one of Matt Nagy’s favorite deflections, his arrow seems to be pointing in the right direction.
“I feel good that he’ll be able to practice the whole way, and have a good practice,” Nagy said. “His deal is going to be more a day-by-day deal –– let’s see exactly. Every day that goes by, was that a good day? Was that a bad day? Talk through it and see how he feels, see what the trainers say, where we as coaches think he’s at. And mentally, too. All that’s a part of this thing.”
Wednesday will be the first day that the Bears release a post-practice injury report. Trubisky returned to his throwing regiment on Monday and wasn’t limited with any sort of pitch count. He’ll be a full-go in practice, and feels confident that his left shoulder is close to feeling 100%. Trubisky (/Bears PR) brushed off the line of questioning when an official diagnosis was asked for, but his left shoulder, as reported, was dislocated.
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“Yeah, it went back in,” he said. “It's a weird feeling – it's not good.”
Trubisky and the Bears were pretty confident off the bat that the injury wasn’t season-ending. Going forward, he’ll wear a protective brace on the shoulder, and the team plans to spend this week assessing his pain tolerance.
“Obviously I haven't gotten hit since then, and there always is some pain tolerance involved,” Trubisky added. “I mean, this is football. So you've just got to figure it out throughout the course of the week I guess. There are some ways we simulate getting hit –– either with the pads or going through certain drills with the trainers –– to try to get you as ready as possible and to make sure I can go out and do the job the way I know I can.”
The harness he’ll wear is similar to what wide receiver Taylor Gabriel had been using to protect a shoulder that was dislocated at multiple points last season. Gabriel actually cut off the brace during halftime of the Bears game in London because he was frustrated with how much it limited his pass catching. Still, the two have spent some time talking about what to expect.
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“Mine’s a little different because I don’t need to necessarily catch,” Trubisky said. “But I’ve got to make sure I’ll be able to catch all the snap radius’ if something happens with that. I’ve been practicing everything that you could pretty much simulate with the trainers as much as you can to make sure I could go out there and do what my team needs me to do.”
For now, the public-facing message coming out of Halas Hall is that Trubisky and backup Chase Daniel will be splitting reps with the 1’s all week. And even though the Nagy-era Bears have always practiced excess precaution with injuries, there's an undeniable optimism in the building.
“I always say ‘cautiously optimistic’,” Nagy said. “I feel good about it, but we’re preparing with both right now. The thing with Chase is that we know he’s been in this role before. If it ends up being him, then it’s the same mojo.”
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