Nick Foles will be the Chicago Bears starting quarterback in Week 4 and beyond after leading a stunning fourth-quarter comeback for a 30-26 victory over the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday.
Bears coach Matt Nagy made the announcement Monday afternoon, three weeks and one day after he named Mitch Trubisky the starter for the season opener against the Lions.
Trubisky led the Bears to two victories, but his uneven play over the first three weeks of the season and his mistakes as the Bears fell into a 26-10 hole Sunday sealed his demotion.
Nagy said they talked as coaches Sunday and watched the film on Monday to make the decision.
“For us, it’s never easy when you go into these types of situations,” Nagy said. “I want to credit both of those guys in yesterday’s situation for being really supportive of each other this whole time, even as hard as that was for Mitch to be told Nick is going to go in and play, Mitch to his credit was just an awesome supporter of Nick during that game.”
In limited time during a shortened training camp, Foles didn’t show enough comfort to overtake Trubisky to be the starter at the beginning of the season. But his play Sunday — including three touchdown passes in the final six and a half minutes — was more than enough to convince Bears coaches the offense is in better hands with him.
“If anything, maybe it’s given Nick more time to really more than anything get to know his teammates, who players are and what their strengths are in practice,” Nagy said. “Nothing has changed a whole lot. I feel like both Nick and Mitch, along with Tyler Bray, have done a really good job of trying to figure out the identity of our offense and who we are and then supporting each other.”
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