Polling Place: How did voters come down on Bears’ Mitch Trubisky-or-Nick Foles dilemma?

Any moment now, Matt Nagy will confirm what we learned late on Friday: Trubisky will be the team’s starting quarterback for the Sept. 13 season opener at the Lions. It’s news that is going over with all the unbridled excitement of a dental diagnosis.

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Chicago Bears Training Camp

Mitch Trubisky (left) and Nick Foles at Bears training camp.

Photo by Dylan Buell/Getty Images

Any moment now, Bears coach Matt Nagy will confirm what we learned late on Friday: Mitch Trubisky will be the team’s starting quarterback for the Sept. 13 season opener at the Lions.

It’s news that is going over with all the unbridled excitement of a dental diagnosis.

Incumbent Mitch Trubisky or veteran newcomer Nick Foles? It was the paper-or-plastic of QB decisions. Or, to stick with the earlier metaphor, the dentures-or-bridges of QB decisions.

Trubisky or Foles? It had to be one of them. For this week’s “Polling Place,” your home for Sun-Times sports polls on Twitter, we asked voters which guy they were rooting for to get the nod. Not surprisingly, the voting was pretty much dead even. That reflects a training-camp competition that was pretty much dead even, and not because both passers lit things up.

This is not just about the opener in Detroit. Whom would you rather see taking the big snaps this season?

“Y’all crazy, this shouldn’t be close,” commented @EdChiSox. “Trubisky has proven time and time again he’s not a franchise quarterback.”

It’s undeniably true that Trubisky, with three seasons under his belt in the NFL, has been less than what met general manager Ryan Pace’s eye. So why are we even talking about this? It should have been former Super Bowl winner Foles, right?

Not necessarily.

“We know Mitch,” @nown4myduality1 wrote. “There is a comfortable chemistry there regardless of how shaky the relationship has been.”

Well, sure, the Bears have been Trubisky’s team, insofar as a team can belong to a subpar QB known as much for his deer-in-the-headlights looks as his more football-friendly physical attributes. Foles was so bad in Jacksonville last season, people there are laughing at us for taking him. And they’re Jaguars fans.

This was a tough call.

“It’s funny how the fans are as divided and unsure as the coaches are,” @manuelthecrow offered.

That they are; the vote was awfully close. On to the polls:

Poll No. 1: Which Bears quarterback are you hoping will get the starting nod in Week 1?

Upshot: We’ve already seen Foles at his best. Trubisky, on the other hand, is freshly 26, only in Year 4 of his career and — little-known trivia alert — a former No. 2 overall draft pick. Is it possible his ceiling is still high? (Wait, was it ever high?) We know it, you know it, even your Aunt Beulah without a TV or a computer knows it: Foles is going to get his shot at some point.

Poll No. 2: The Bears ranked 24th last season in passer rating. Will they fare better or worse in 2020?

Upshot: We know what you’re thinking: Eight teams seriously finished behind the Bears in this category? We had to look it up a dozen or so times before we believed it. Hey, why shouldn’t the Bears creep up the rankings? They have new tight ends in Jimmy Graham and Cole Kmet who can make plays downfield. Wide receiver Anthony Miller is coming on strong. Say it with us: We’re No. 23!

Poll No. 3: If the Bears miss the playoffs in a completed season, should general manager Ryan Pace be back in 2021?

Upshot: “This needs a ‘depends’ answer,” commented @richg780. “If the roster is decimated by COVID-19 despite the safeguards the team has built around them, then it wouldn’t be his fault.” Does that count as a backhanded vote of confidence? Probably not. Pace has done some good things, but around here he’ll always be the man who looked at Deshaun Watson, Patrick Mahomes and Trubisky and said, “Ooh, I want that one!”

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