This Sunday night seems to have a lot of stakes attached to it for the Chicago Bears. They’re 5-5 with the season teetering on a knife-edge. Beating the Green Bay Packers gets them back into the playoff mix. Losing likely sends them plummeting to the bottom of the NFC. This after a 5-1 start to the season. Were that to happen, people are convinced Ryan Pace and Matt Nagy have to be gone. Right?
Opinions tend to vary on this. Some are already convinced they’re gone given the egregious state of the offense. Others aren’t so sure due to Pace’s strong relationship with the McCaskey family and also the real-life impact COVID-19 has had on the entire season. It’s felt the two will get one more chance in 2021, hopefully with a proper offseason to prepare.
There may be another factor in play though.
Bears insider Chris Emma spoke about the situation face Pace and Nagy on the Grote & Emma Show for 670 The Score. He started his explanation with a simple statement.
“I think Pace is most likely back next season. I think Nagy is most likely back.”
Where it got interesting though was his explanation as to why. He didn’t once mention COVID or other factors like the idea the team doesn’t want to pay more money for a new GM or head coach. No such a decision to maintain the status quo would stem more from George McCaskey and Ted Phillips not trusting themselves enough to find the right guys if they were to make changes.
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“But the problem is they’ve admitted that some of these football decisions are not their greatest strength. You look back at 2015 when the Bears did hire Ryan Pace, they did so under the recommendation of Ernie Accorsi…He was working in the place of a President of Football Operations really, when you think about it…
…There’s a lot you can say about Ryan Pace’s tenure, but the fact that they don’t really have anybody within the organization who can truly make the right decision with Ryan Pace’s future without emotions tied to him, with true football thought and innovation behind it. The Bears don’t have anybody within the organization who knows the trends of the NFL and what should be the right hire at general manager if you’re going to move on from Ryan Pace.”
Ryan Pace and Matt Nagy may be saved by the Bears’ team structure
Emma pointed out one of the reasons that Phillips is such a favorite target for Bears fans is because he’s the team president. That means he answers directly to ownership and nobody else. Despite the McCaskeys making it clear that he handles all business duties for the franchise with little true power over football decisions, people refuse to accept that. This is why it might be smart to make him the President of Business Operations and somebody else the President of Football Operations.
It’s a similar setup to teams like the Pittsburgh Steelers and Denver Broncos. Pittsburgh has a Vice president & general manager in Kevin Colbert and a Vice president of football and business administration in Omar Khan. Denver has a President and CEO in Joe Ellis and a President of Football Operations in John Elway. Their roles are clearly defined. There is never any confusion as to who runs the business and who runs the football.
The Bears haven’t caught up with how modern organizations are structured.
That failure to put somebody with legitimate football experience in a top spot of their power structure could be a major reason why they’ve consistently failed to find the right people to turn this team into the contender it should be. It’s why they ended up with guys like Phil Emery and Marc Trestman. Why they ended up with Ryan Pace and Matt Nagy. They haven’t made their decisions based on which guys might be best for the team.
They’ve made their decisions based on who they liked the most. Who made the best impression. That may be what’s best for business, but it’s not always what’s best for football.