Chicago Bears: Resting starters vs Chiefs is a mistake
In a shocking move, the Chicago Bears have decided to rest their starters against the Kansas City Chiefs. Is this a mistake for the team moving forward?
The Chicago Bears play their first preseason game at Soldier Field on Saturday against the Kansas City Chiefs. I was really looking forward to watching the starters in the dress rehearsal game where the starters typically play into the third quarter.
It’s the master Andy Reid against his pupil Matt Nagy, so it had the makings of being one of the more exciting preseason games out there.
Then, the Bears took all of the excitement right out of us by announcing late Friday night that Nagy announced that most of the starters, including Mitch Trubisky, would not play in the game.
Apparently, this is because the starters had their best week of practice of 2018 and they want to get an extended look at the depth players on the roster.
After their best week of practices so far in 2018, Matt Nagy met with the team today to inform them most starters, including Mitchell Trubisky, will not play in #KCvsCHI. Coach Nagy and his staff had planned for this all week, giving starters on both sides of the ball extra reps.
— Chicago Bears (@ChicagoBears) August 25, 2018
The real reason is that they don’t want to see any starters go down due to injury, which I do understand. So far in the third preseason games, Browns’ quarterback Tyrod Taylor, Buccaneers wide receiver Mike Evans and Giants’ tight end Evan Engram have all been lost to injury.
Nagy wants to make sure that all of his key players like Trey Burton, Trubisky, Jordan Howard, Akiem Hicks and Danny Trevathan stay healthy for one of the most important games of the season week one vs the Green Bay Packers.
However, even with the risk of injury, the Bears need experience and practice that only live game reps can provide. Trubisky is only in his second year and his first in a complex, new offense. Anthony Miller is a rookie and Allen Robinson is coming off of a major injury and we still haven’t really seen him or Taylor Gabriel play in this brand new offense.
Someone tweeted at me that the #Bears are playing/being scared with Nagy's decision to sit their starters vs. Chiefs. I think it's the exact opposite. It took some guts. It's unconventional.
— Adam Jahns (@adamjahns) August 25, 2018
So, we will find out in week one whether this was a good decision. Right now I will lean towards a bad one. If the offense looks disorganized and out of sync against the Green Bay Packers, then we will certainly lay a lot of the blame on this decision. However, if they come out and play effectively, then Nagy will look like a genius that knows how to prepare his group of players.
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If Nagy wants to rest the starters, he better make sure he has a game plan that is going to work against the Packers in the first week, since the reps the starters are going to be getting is in practice against each other. Time will tell if this decision will come back to haunt the Bears.