LAKE FOREST, Ill. -- Chicago Bears coach Matt Nagy is "cautiously optimistic" that quarterback Mitchell Trubisky will be medically cleared to return from a non-throwing shoulder injury and start on Sunday versus the New Orleans Saints.
"I always say 'cautiously optimistic'... I feel good about [where we are with Trubisky]," Nagy said Wednesday. "But we're preparing with both [quarterbacks right now]."
Trubisky, who practiced on Wednesday, reported that he's close to full strength but said he needs to wear a harness on his left shoulder in order to play.
"I feel close [to 100%]," Trubisky said before practice.
"I think I've just got to show the training staff and the coaches that my shoulder and everything is strong enough to be able to put me out there, to withstand hits, to be able to do my job to 100 percent. I need to show them throughout practice this week that I'm good to go and I feel comfortable about where I'm at. We've done a good job with this rehab plan of getting on the same page and just communicating, and hopefully once I show everyone that I'm good to go in practice this week, they'll let me roll and not look back."
Trubisky suffered a dislocated left shoulder and slight labrum tear in the first quarter of Chicago's victory over the Vikings on Sept. 29. Team doctors determined that Trubisky would not need to undergo surgery, but backup quarterback Chase Daniel started the next week against the Raiders in London.
"It was definitely painful," Trubisky said of the injury. "I definitely wasn't thinking 'Is my season over?' or anything bad like that, I was more thinking, 'Can I go back in and finish the game?' Unfortunately, I couldn't.
"It's different because it's not my throwing shoulder, and that's why I thought I might be able to go back in. I thought, oh, it's just my left arm, maybe I could just catch a snap and be able to do all the handoffs and stuff and be able to throw, but I really couldn't move it. So if what happened to this left shoulder would happen to my right, we might be in a different situation, but it feels pretty good right now. I'm pleased about the progress we've made, a lot of credit to the training staff in just getting that recovery, and thank goodness it recovered quickly."
Trubisky finished last season with respectable numbers in Nagy's system, passing for 3,223 yards and 24 touchdowns with 12 interceptions (95.4 quarterback rating) as Chicago went 12-4 and won its first NFC North title since 2010.
But Trubisky has mostly struggled thus far in 2019.
The former second overall pick had subpar outings versus Green Bay and Denver to open the year. He bounced back with a three-touchdown performance in Washington in Week 3 but has passed for just 588 yards, three touchdowns and two interceptions. Chicago's offense ranks near the bottom of the league in virtually every important offensive statistical category.
Trubisky rushed for a combined 669 yards and five touchdowns over his first two seasons in the league, but he has run only five times for 21 yards in 2019.
"The main thing we've got to do is definitely show consistency," Trubisky said. "But we had some plays where we had some big-play potential. Or we had some drives that we had some good plays. And then we kind of sputtered out and didn't finish the drives.
"Hopefully, we'll have some things that open up. We look at what we did the first couple of games with some of the concepts, the runs and what everyone's comfortable with and get those going. Get on the same page and make sure that we're just executing. We've got enough talent to make it happen. We just got to believe in it."