Bears coach John Fox isn’t giving away any important state secrets, even if it’s something as seemingly inconsequential as the identity of his backup quarterback.
But while he won’t confirm whether Mark Sanchez or Mitchell Trubisky will be No. 2 Sunday against the Falcons, he made it a point to mention that they’d continue to develop Trubisky, and that will likely mean plenty of regular season reps with the scout team — a duty normally given to the third quarterback if the team has one.
“Our coaches have done an excellent job getting him the time and the reps to develop in the preseason and much of the same will happen in the regular season,” Fox said of Trubisky, via Rich Campbell of the Chicago Tribune. “You get a lot of looks [running the scout team]. A lot of people do very similar things in our league. So it’s just being under center, seeing defenses, and I’m not saying he won’t get any of the regular reps throughout the season.
“He’ll get a combination of both, just as all three of our quarterbacks will, primarily the 2 and 3.”
Trubisky was good enough in the preseason that it would be easy to justify making him the backup to Mike Glennon, but that would have also justified not needing Sanchez hanging around.
But the Bears have appeared serious about keeping the reins pulled back on Trubisky, and held onto Sanchez while playing him just two series in the preseason.