The Chicago Bears are an organization that is nothing if not consistent. In this case, being consistently mediocre for the best part of the past 30 years. Since the end of the Mike Ditka era in the 1980s, they’ve sunk into the background as other franchises become more celebrated for leading the NFL into the future. All while the Bears remain stuck in the past. Their unwillingness or inability to innovate continues to haunt them.
Over the past 10 years, it felt like they were finally trying to go in that direction. They made bold moves for quarterbacks like Jay Cutler and Mitch Trubisky. They hired offensively-minded head coaches like Marc Trestman and Matt Nagy. All in an effort to follow the trends the league was going towards. Yet those efforts have resulted in one playoff appearance since 2013.
They just can’t get it right.
Now here they are again. In the midst of a brutal collapse down the stretch of another season. Rumors keep flying that George McCaskey is considering big changes after the final four games conclude in early January. What nobody can say for sure is what those changes will be. Most are hoping for a complete house cleaning. Not just with Nagy and GM Ryan Pace being gone. Maybe even team president Ted Phillips.
Brad Biggs of the Chicago Tribune though isn’t entirely sold on that happening. While he does expect changes this coming offseason, he warned that they may not be as sweeping as some fans are hoping for. It’s more likely that Pace is the one who ends up taking the fall for everybody.
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“If you’re looking at individuals and not lumping them all together, it’s my opinion that general manager Ryan Pace is in the greatest jeopardy. He had a bad offseason in free agency, and that has been a recurring theme as the Bears have been forced to double down on some positions that were misses in the draft. He’s the one who shops for the groceries, and Nagy has to cook the meal with the ingredients provided. So I would imagine Pace’s seat is probably warmer than Nagy’s…
…There could wind up being sweeping changes involving more than the GM and coach. But I don’t think it’s a done deal that it will be pink slips for everyone on Jan. 4, the day after the season ends.”
Chicago Bears went down this road before
This is something they’ve done far too often in years past. Bring in a head coach or GM at different times but rarely ever at the same time. Mark Hatley took over as de facto GM in 1997 but was forced to retain Dave Wannstedt for two more seasons. Jerry Angelo arrived in the summer of 2001 while Dick Jauron was still the head coach. The team then went 13-3, which forced the new GM to retain him for two more seasons before finally hiring Lovie Smith.
Then in 2012, the shoe was on the other foot. Angelo was fired and replaced by Phil Emery, who was requested to retain Smith as head coach. Despite the team going 10-6 that year, Emery decided to make a change anyway. A decision the Bears are still paying for years later. This half-measure approach has yet to work once for this team so why would they consider trying again?
The simplest answer is money.
Pace has only one year left on his contract. Nagy has two. Chicago can afford to dismiss the GM because they can’t possibly let him chart their course forward on the final year of his deal. On the other hand, with the pandemic taking a big shot at their pocketbooks this season, one can imagine the McCaskeys aren’t wild about the idea of paying Nagy to go away and at the same time paying somebody else to replace him.
They also like Nagy. George McCaskey has made that clear before. He’s seen as a good leader inside the locker room. A lot of people think it’s unfair to judge him at this point because Pace has done such a poor job supplying offensive pieces. Especially a quarterback. That isn’t saying these are good excuses.
It’s just they might be enough to sway Chicago Bears ownership into backing off the idea of a complete purge.
