Chicago Bears fans probably turned on Matt Nagy last year or even towards the end of 2019. They were starting to get the sense that the head coach talked a big game but wasn’t able to back up his words on the field too many times. Coming into 2021, George McCaskey elected to keep the man in place. In part because Nagy never had a losing season, had just reached the playoffs, and was the type of leader ownership felt was right for the franchise.
Somewhere between then and now, things changed. Most would point to another good start to the season ruined by a long losing streak and another incompetent offense. However, it sounds like Nagy’s downfall actually began earlier than people think. As far back as the beginning of August. Jeff Hughes of Da Bears Blog was on top of the Bears firings before anybody else this past week. He has since provided some fascinating details on where things went off the rails.
Long story short it all came down to Justin Fields.
Matt Nagy began to fall out of favor with ownership this summer. George McCaskey, and Ted Phillips, shared my outrage with how the quarterback position was being handled. George was physically moved to see Justin Fields receive a standing ovation at a preseason game and could not understand why Nagy, and to a lesser degree Pace, were eschewing that enthusiasm to play a journeyman quarterback.
Despite what has been reported, George never instructed Nagy to play Fields. But he did, almost weekly, ask WHY Fields wasn’t playing. The problem? Nagy’s answers never held water. When the coach would resort to tired phrases about the kid not being “ready”, the owner wanted to know what that actually meant. Nagy could never communicate that effectively.
This sounds about right. Both fans and the media called out Nagy for his handling of the 11th overall pick from the start. Not just because he refused to give Fields an opportunity to win the starting job, but even went so far as to not even given him reps with the 1st team offense in practice. He stubbornly adhered to the model he saw in Kansas City despite there being some massive differences between the two situations.
Sure enough, Andy Dalton got hurt in the second week of the season. This forced Fields into action having to work with players he had zero chemistry with. As a result, the kid gets brutalized for nine sacks in his first start against Cleveland. It was just one blunder after another with Nagy and his inability to articulate his reasoning made matters worse. Not a surprise given how his press conferences have gone over the years.
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In the end, Matt Nagy felt like a head coach that wasn’t ready
He had leadership traits. He had a steady demeanor in difficult circumstances. An ability to motivate his players. Sadly he lacked the necessary prowess for game management and forging a proper team identity. Not being able to mold his offense to the talent he had was another big failing. No doubt a byproduct of spending his entire coaching career in the same system under Andy Reid. After just two years as an offensive coordinator, he was handed the job.
The Bears had the right idea. An offensive-minded coach with leadership qualities that could get the most out of Mitch Trubisky. It just didn’t happen. After a promising start in 2018, the NFL caught up to what he was doing. Matt Nagy never managed to adjust after that. He changed quarterbacks and even his entire offensive staff. Nothing worked. One last Hail Mary to draft Fields ironically ended up being the seeds of his downfall.
A tough legacy to swallow.
Nagy won’t be considered the worst head coach in Bears history. Not even close. That said, he may go down as one of the biggest disappointments. He was handed a roster capable of competing for a Super Bowl and wasted it. Maybe Trubisky was just bad but that will never be clear because the coach himself wasn’t any good either.
