Amusing quote yesterday from Chicago head coach Matt Nagy. Asked about his quarterback situation, with incumbent Mitchell Trubiksy and newcomer Nick Foles, he said there's not really a battle at present. "There's no competition going on right now over Zoom," says Nagy.
Reasonable, of course, to wait until players can actually take the field for Nagy to choose a 2020 starter. Most believe it will be Foles; Chicago made tentative steps to moving on from Trubisky first by acquiring Foles, and then deciding not to pick up Trubisky's fifth-year option.
Just maybe Trubisky is the starter in Week 1, but probably not -- and even if he is, it will likely be short-lived.
We all recall Foles great season under Chip Kelly, and then his Super Bowl-winning run replacing Carson Wentz. But when you add up all of his (regular-season) starts over the past three seasons, he's been very much a lesser fantasy quarterback -- as has Trubisky.
Table shows the per-game numbers for all quarterbacks who've started at least 10 games the last three seasons. Foles and Trubisky, the two options the Bears have to choose from, are both down near the bottom of that group. And nobody else down there, with the possible exception of Tyrod Taylor, will open the 2020 season as a starter.
QUARTERBACK PER GAME NUMBERS, 2017-2019 | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Player | St | PYd | RYd | TYds | TD | Pts |
Lamar Jackson | 22 | 193.2 | 80.1 | 273.3 | 2.36 | 28.1 |
Patrick Mahomes | 31 | 303.6 | 16.1 | 319.7 | 2.58 | 27.5 |
Deshaun Watson | 37 | 259.8 | 32.9 | 292.7 | 2.30 | 26.4 |
Andrew Luck | 16 | 287.1 | 9.3 | 296.3 | 2.44 | 25.3 |
Jameis Winston | 38 | 296.3 | 16.9 | 313.3 | 1.87 | 24.4 |
Daniel Jones | 12 | 250.8 | 22.8 | 273.7 | 2.17 | 24.2 |
Russell Wilson | 48 | 240.4 | 27.2 | 267.6 | 2.21 | 24.0 |
Ben Roethlisberger | 33 | 294.9 | 4.6 | 299.5 | 1.97 | 23.6 |
Ryan Fitzpatrick | 23 | 273.3 | 17.8 | 291.1 | 1.87 | 23.5 |
Carson Wentz | 40 | 260.2 | 15.9 | 276.1 | 2.05 | 23.2 |
Cam Newton | 32 | 227.2 | 38.8 | 265.9 | 1.75 | 23.0 |
Matt Ryan | 47 | 286.9 | 8.8 | 295.7 | 1.83 | 22.9 |
Dak Prescott | 48 | 252.3 | 19.6 | 271.9 | 1.85 | 22.7 |
Drew Brees | 42 | 269.2 | .7 | 269.9 | 2.12 | 22.4 |
Jared Goff | 47 | 279.4 | 4.2 | 283.6 | 1.85 | 22.1 |
Aaron Rodgers | 39 | 259.5 | 14.8 | 274.3 | 1.79 | 22.1 |
Josh Allen | 27 | 188.5 | 41.3 | 229.8 | 1.74 | 22.1 |
Kyler Murray | 16 | 232.6 | 34.0 | 266.6 | 1.50 | 21.9 |
Tom Brady | 48 | 270.6 | 2.0 | 272.6 | 1.88 | 21.6 |
Kirk Cousins | 47 | 255.2 | 7.8 | 263.0 | 1.89 | 21.5 |
Ryan Tannehill | 21 | 218.0 | 15.5 | 233.5 | 2.10 | 21.4 |
Philip Rivers | 48 | 280.0 | .7 | 280.7 | 1.73 | 21.2 |
Baker Mayfield | 29 | 253.5 | 9.4 | 262.9 | 1.79 | 21.1 |
Matthew Stafford | 40 | 268.1 | 5.9 | 273.9 | 1.73 | 21.0 |
Gardner Minshew | 12 | 237.4 | 27.5 | 264.9 | 1.50 | 21.0 |
C.J. Beathard | 10 | 243.7 | 19.1 | 262.8 | 1.50 | 20.9 |
Alex Smith | 25 | 248.9 | 20.9 | 269.8 | 1.52 | 20.8 |
Kyle Allen | 13 | 250.4 | 9.2 | 259.6 | 1.69 | 20.7 |
Jimmy Garoppolo | 24 | 259.9 | 4.3 | 264.2 | 1.67 | 20.5 |
Blake Bortles | 28 | 227.4 | 23.6 | 251.0 | 1.32 | 19.4 |
Andy Dalton | 40 | 234.5 | 6.8 | 241.3 | 1.65 | 19.3 |
Sam Darnold | 26 | 226.5 | 7.7 | 234.2 | 1.50 | 18.6 |
Derek Carr | 47 | 246.8 | 4.1 | 250.9 | 1.38 | 18.5 |
Mitchell Trubisky | 41 | 208.6 | 21.0 | 229.7 | 1.34 | 18.5 |
Eli Manning | 35 | 251.7 | 1.5 | 253.2 | 1.37 | 18.5 |
Josh McCown | 16 | 216.6 | 9.8 | 226.3 | 1.50 | 18.4 |
Case Keenum | 38 | 232.8 | 6.4 | 239.2 | 1.37 | 18.0 |
Jacoby Brissett | 30 | 199.6 | 16.3 | 215.9 | 1.30 | 17.4 |
DeShone Kizer | 15 | 192.9 | 27.9 | 220.9 | 1.07 | 17.4 |
Marcus Mariota | 34 | 201.1 | 22.0 | 223.1 | 1.12 | 17.1 |
Tyrod Taylor | 17 | 182.5 | 30.2 | 212.8 | 1.12 | 17.1 |
Nick Foles | 12 | 215.7 | 3.6 | 219.3 | 1.25 | 16.3 |
Joe Flacco | 33 | 225.1 | 3.6 | 228.7 | 1.12 | 16.3 |
Jay Cutler | 14 | 190.4 | 2.3 | 192.7 | 1.36 | 15.2 |
Trevor Siemian | 11 | 194.5 | 10.7 | 205.2 | 1.00 | 15.0 |
Josh Rosen | 16 | 169.2 | 8.7 | 177.9 | .75 | 12.5 |
I've seen some talk to the effect of Allen Robinson having the best quarterback he's ever worked in Foles this season. Maybe so, but it's still a pretty low bar. I'm not particularly keen on Chicago's offense in 2020.
--Andy Richardson