Whenever a head coach is fired, stories are going to follow his exit. Stories of how things were behind closed doors. Usually, they reveal where things went wrong. It appears Matt Nagy isn’t any different. For a guy that put on a public persona of a player’s coach, somebody a locker room loved, a lot of ugly revelations are coming out on how he handled his players. It started via a Chicago Tribune expose that revealed Nagy had completely blown off an expected meeting with Mitch Trubisky following the end of the 2019 season. Now it seems he wasn’t the only victim of that. So was Allen Robinson.
It seems the star Bears wide receiver became disillusioned with Nagy following the end of the 2020 season. Here he was coming off a second straight 1,000-yards year. With his contract expiring, he wanted to speak with the head coach about his future in the offense and in Chicago. Robinson went into detail about what happened next on the Cut To It podcast with former wide receiver Steve Smith.
Suffice to say all he got from the head coach was silence.
“It wasn’t that I didn’t talk to him, we didn’t talk. I’m gonna say, ‘We didn’t talk,’ because from the time the season ended, on the plane after the Saints game, the following 24 to 48 hours, there’s some sort of exit meetings. For us, because of COVID, that was supposed to be scheduled with the head coach and management, or however they were coordinating that, via Zoom. Talked to the receivers coach, talked to equipment, everybody else, few days go by, no Zoom link. Week go by, no Zoom link.
I was a pending free agent at that point. I didn’t know which direction they were wanting to go, either way or not. So for me, I’m waiting for that exit meeting so we can talk about this thing. Like, what do you all see, or think, in the foreseeable future, just to give me an idea. So for me if it’s supposed be a Zoom link sent out to me, cool. Alright, I’m waiting for that Zoom link so we can chop it up and see what’s up. Even from a football side, from how do we improve next year? A week go by, no Zoom link. Two weeks, no Zoom. Now January, we’re into February, nope.”
That was a point of no return for Robinson.
It reflected in what followed. The wide receiver became convinced the coaching staff had quit on him. Even though the Bears franchise tagged him that offseason, there was a constant disconnect prevailing on offense. It never felt like Robinson was the focal point of the passing attack like he’d been the three previous years. If people weren’t sure how he felt about the situation, just check out this tweet he deleted.
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That seems rather definitive.
It bears out in the numbers too. In 2020, Robinson was targeted an average of 9.4 times per game. He was the clear engine that drove the passing game. Last season, that average tanked to 5.5 times per game. It became clear to the receiver that Nagy and his staff were intentionally pushing the offense away from him and towards guys like Darnell Mooney and Cole Kmet. While those two enjoyed career-best seasons, it didn’t help the passing game overall.
Can the new regime repair the damaged relationship with Allen Robinson?
This will be a central question going into the spring. GM Ryan Poles and new head coach Matt Eberflus just arrived this past week. They’re still in the process of trying to assemble staffs and prepare for the upcoming Senior Bowl. They haven’t had a lot of time to meet all of the players just yet. Still, one has to imagine those meetings are coming. It will be interesting to see how they approach this delicate situation.
Smart money says Allen Robinson has his sights set on free agency in March. One can hardly blame him. At the same time, Chicago needs reliable targets for Justin Fields and he is still a very good wide receiver. If Poles and Eberflus can find a way to convince him to stay, it would make things far easier on offense going into next season. Especially if they can find an offensive coordinator that understands his value.
