Check out the list of Chicago Bears players who are not expected to play in tonight’s preseason lid-lifter against the Carolina Panthers:
#Bears players not expected to play tonight:
Offense:
12 Robinson II
18 Gabriel
29 Cohen
75 Long
80 Burton
84 Patterson
87 ShaheenDefense:
20 Amukamara
23 Fuller
24 Skrine
39 Jackson
52 Mack
59 Trevathan
94 Floyd
96 Hicks
22 Toliver II (illness)#CARvsCHI— Chicago Bears (@BearsPR) August 8, 2019
Notably absent from the list of players not expected to play tonight is quarterback Mitch Trubisky. That would suggest that the Bears’ starting quarterback is going to get some playing time tonight. How much is still to be determined, but it is tough to imagine Trubisky getting a significant amount of burn in the first preseason game of the summer.
For what it’s worth, Trubisky played just 10 snaps against the Bengals in what was the 2018 equivalent of the game the Bears are about to play tonight. With that in mind, it is easy to envision Trubisky being on a short leash or given some sort of “pitch count” against the Panthers. Figure Trubisky to start, get some reps on a few series, and quickly make way for Chase Daniel and the reserves.
Trubisky played just 40 total offensive snaps and threw only 18 passes in two preseason games before Head Coach Matt Nagy rested the starters for the final two exhibition games.. And much like last year, Trubisky has some kinks to work out under center. So in that vein, I can understand why Trubisky would get some early snaps with the first-team offensive line (minus Kyle Long) and the rest of the first-team offense (sans Allen Robinson II, Taylor Gabriel, and Tarik Cohen). It’s just that perhaps the Bears — who are resting each of their four first-team All-Pros and a handful of other important starters — might be best suited keeping their starting quarterback out of harm’s way as much as possible.