While Matt Nagy and Ryan Pace scramble to try and save their jobs over the final five games, a lot of people are already looking beyond them. Expectations are growing that both will be fired by the Chicago Bears barring a massive turnaround in December. Something that hasn’t happened for this team in a long time. Remember at 5-6 they would need to go 4-1 just to reach a 9-7 mark.
Given how their offense has looked all year and how disinterested their defense looked last Sunday? That is asking a lot. Granted, the upcoming schedule might help. Detroit is up next. A team Nagy has owned since arriving back in 2018. Houston has been off and on all year. Jacksonville has one win. They almost beat Minnesota last time. Then of course the Packers again.
That is four clearly winnable games out of five.
Then again the Bears have played plenty of winnable games this year and have found ways to lose. One could argue they shouldn’t even be 5-6. If not for insane comebacks against Detroit and Atlanta, they could easily be 3-8. So even that record is deceiving. This team isn’t playing like anything close to a .500 team. They look much worse.
Some people are left wondering. If ownership does clean house next month, would they even be able to attract top GM and head coach candidates? NFL insider John Clayton of the Washington Post seems to think so. He ranked every position that either is or probably will be open come January. He had the Bears ranked 4th out of eight teams total. Why the decent placement?
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“There is a lot to like about the talented defense, which isn’t at risk of losing starters to free agency. But, of course, there is the concern at quarterback. The trade up to draft Mitchell Trubisky clearly hasn’t worked. The trade for Nick Foles didn’t do the trick, either. So a new regime’s top task would be figuring out the quarterback situation and fixing one of the league’s worst offenses.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BQJTkmWAbE&ab_channel=HuyNguy%E1%BB%85n
Chicago Bears defense may save the day again
People can say this for Pace. He built a really good defense. Even with the ongoing struggles of the offense, it has continued to play solid football. Last week notwithstanding. Many are worried it might be on its last legs given the age of some notable names like Akiem Hicks (31), Danny Trevathan (30), Robert Quinn (30), and Khalil Mack (29). That said, it might be too early to declare it on the cusp of falling off a cliff.
The defense has a strong young core in place too. Eddie Jackson, Roquan Smith, and Jaylon Johnson are all 26 or younger. Eddie Goldman will return next year and he’ll be 27. So there is no reason to think there will be a huge drop off in performance at least for the next year or two. Especially if they can continue to supply it with some solid developmental depth.
That means the next regime can focus primary resources on offense.
That is a much easier job than having to rebuild an entire roster from scratch like Pace had to do back in 2015. The challenge is the volume of resources. With a cap rollover, the Bears will have just over $2 million in salary cap space. So some serious work will need to be done in order to find some breathing room. That may include a tough veteran sacrifice such as Kyle Fuller ($11 million) and Akiem Hicks ($10.5 million).
The good news is if the compensatory selections come through as expected, the Chicago Bears could have nine picks in the draft including their first in the 1st round since 2018. Not great but certainly not terrible. This team should have no shortage of prospective coaches or GMs interested in those top jobs.