There’s an old saying in the NFL that goes, “if you have two quarterbacks, you have none.” Having two competent quarterbacks vying for a leadership role in the locker room while also continuously competing against one another has never been a sustainable recipe for success, and it appears this may be the problem the Chicago Bears have on their hands entering training camp this season.

Last week, Bears general manager Ryan Pace and head coach Matt Nagy confirmed they will hold an open competition at quarterback during training camp.

The competition of course will be between Mitchell Trubiksy and newly acquired former Super Bowl MVP Nick Foles.

Some fans and pundits believe Foles actually has the edge in this competition. NBC Sports Chicago writer JJ Stankevitz wrote a piece on why he believes Foles will earn the starting spot for week 1. In his article he writes:

“But for Trubisky to win the job, and not Foles, the Bears will have to not only see the 2017 No. 2 overall pick out-play his challenger during training camp. They’ll have to convince themselves it’s not a mirage, and that the last three years of inconsistent-at-best tape aren’t a mitigating factor against a guy who threw for 373 yards as the MVP of a Super Bowl.”

It’s easy for Bears fans and analysts to see it this way. They’ve watched Trubisky throughout his entire career, seeing every arrant throw, every misread and every interception. Their only memory of Foles was seeing him out duel Tom Brady in Super Bowl 52 and then coming to their city and beating their Bears the following season in the playoffs.

Foles obviously seems like the much better quarterback if you’re only looking at it through that lense. But, Foles has had his ups-and-downs as well. In fact, he’s had more downs than he’s had ups throughout his career.

Although he’s played for four organizations throughout his career, Foles has only done well with one, the Philadelphia Eagles. He’s never started a full 16 game season, even when he was named the starter heading into the season, he’s either gotten hurt or benched.

Even with all the familiarity that Foles brings to Chicago, playing under coach Nagy in Kansas City and playing in a similar offensive system in Philly, it’s hard to predict what version of Foles we’ll see next season.

Ideally, the Bears organization would love to see Trubisky step up to the challenge and outplay Foles in camp. They moved up the the no. 2 overall spot to snag him in the 2017 draft, and all they’ve heard since then was how they should’ve drafted Patrick Mahomes or Deshaun Watson. There’s nothing they’d love more than for Trubisky to silence the critics.

Their hope is that this competition will bring the best out of Trubisky. If he’s truly the team’s franchise quarterback moving forward, Trubiksy will set himself apart during camp and clearly be the better quarterback.

Competitors always rise to the challenge. We’ll find out what kind of competitor Turbiksy is once camp rolls around this year.