With their quarterback competition settled, the Bears, seemingly, are mentally and physically ready for Sunday's season opener in Detroit.
"We're excited the season's finally here, and I just love our mindset in the building, that businesslike approach," said Mitchell Trubisky, who edged veteran Nick Foles in the highly-publicized position battle. "But we're having fun with it. You see guys flying around. Everyone seems to be locked in and really focused on the task at hand. As a leader, you love to see that, and we're just trying to get more and more of that."
Trubisky is confident that a retooled offense will be significantly better than it was last year when the Bears ranked 29th in the NFL in both scoring and total yards. In the offseason, the team hired a new coordinator and three position coaches, traded for Foles, added speed at receiver and completely revamped the tight end position.
"I think it's our edge, our focus and then our execution," Trubisky said. "I feel like we have more weapons on offense, especially in the tight end room. We added some speed to the receiver position. And then our O-line, they've done a great job throughout camp adjusting to the new stuff that we've added to our offense in the run game and the pass game.
"I just feel like we're running what suits our personnel right now. I feel like we're doing a really great job of feeling that out and putting our guys in positions to go up and make plays.
"I just feel like our mindset is, we're bringing more of a sense of urgency to ourselves. We know exactly what we've got to do. We're bouncing around. And guys are excited to go out there and make plays. Guys are locked in. We're being a lot more detailed within the playbook. And that's just going to give us a better chance to go out there and make plays."
Last season the Bears ranked 24th in the NFL in red zone touchdown percentage (52.2) and 25th in third-down efficiency (35.7 percent).
"We know we've got to be better in the red zone, be better on third down to stay on the field, and when we get down there, we've got to make sure we're scoring points, because at the end of the day, that's all that really matters," Trubisky said. "But I just feel like where we're at studying and where we're at mentally, our approach taking the field is different than it was last year. And I think the confidence that the guys are bringing to the offense is going to help us execute better and score those points."
