Bears quarterback Mitchell Trubisky returned to practice on a limited basis Wednesday as he continues to recover from a right shoulder injury that forced him to miss last Thursday's win over the Lions.
"It's going to continue to be one of those day-to-day things with him," said coach Matt Nagy. "I don't know his exact pain tolerance or level right now. But I definitely think his arrow's up right now and we'll just have to kind of keep communicating with him on a day-to-day basis as to where he's at, how he feels."
Trubisky's availability for Sunday's road game against the New York Giants won't be determined until later in the week, possibly as late as game day.
"If he starts feeling better and we feel like we need to make a decision earlier, we'll do that," Nagy said. "But this is something, just going back to the Khalil Mack and A-Rob (Allen Robinson II) [injuries], it could end up being a game-time thing."
Trubisky hurt his throwing shoulder Nov. 18 late in the Bears' 25-20 Sunday night win over the Vikings at Soldier Field on an illegal hit by safety Harrison Smith.
Nagy reiterated that Trubisky's injury is not a long-term one and revealed that his range-of-motion is not an issue. The coach also said that he'd feel confident in Trubisky starting against the Giants even if he only gets limited practice reps this week.
"I feel like the time that he's put in this season with the reps that he's had, it helps him for being prepared," Nagy said. "If we end up going his way, I'm not concerned."
Asked what Bears trainers will be monitoring to determine whether Trubisky will be able to practice, Nagy said: "If he's going to play, he's got to be able to make throws and physically be safe. They'll do their end of it, what it looks like and everything and then they'll come to us and ask us, 'Is this something that we feel like we can do or not do?'"
While Nagy acknowledges that it's helpful to have a competent backup in Chase Daniel to rely on, that won't impact when Trubisky returns to game action.
"That decision isn't made because of that," Nagy said. "We're going to do what's best for Mitch. We're going to do what's best for us. And then once we know where that's at, then we'll be able to judge that and then get them both ready both prepared mentally and then physically as well."
Making only his third start in nine NFL seasons, Daniel excelled against the Lions on Thanksgiving under difficult circumstances. After not taking any full-speed practice reps due to the short week, he completed 27 of 37 passes for 230 yards with two touchdowns, no turnovers and a 106.8 passer rating in a 23-16 win.
If Daniel is forced to start again Sunday against the Giants, he figures to benefit from a full week of practice.
"I think that it could definitely help him out," Nagy said. "If that's the route we end up going, he's going to get more reps versus what he went through [last week]. That was hard. That was all mental. You go into the game and now we're expecting guys to be throwing great accurate passes all over the field, and I don't know if that's necessarily realistic."
Nagy obviously didn't want to see Trubisky get hurt, but the Bears coach was thrilled that Daniel got a rare opportunity to start—and win—the Thanksgiving game in Detroit. Nagy served as Daniel's position coach in three seasons with the Chiefs from 2013-15.
"For my history with Chase and the relationship that I have with him, he's always been almost like a little bit of an assistant coach to us as well," Nagy said. "He's been great at that, so now here's a guy who in his role is fulfilling not only that quote-unquote assistant coach part, but a guy that has the ability to step in and make coaches feel very comfortable that you can win games with him at quarterback."
