By this point, the assumption from most people close to the Chicago Bears is that Matt Nagy would likely be fired as head coach. The steady decline of the team over the past three years and his inability to fix the offense makes it inevitable at this point. Or at least that is what most fans hope is true. To this point none of the major insiders have offered solid confirmation this will happen. Until now.
Ian Rapoport of NFL Network released a column on NFL.com detailing his latest update on the Bears situation. He is of the belief that Chicago will indeed move on from Nagy following the season finale in Minnesota next week. Assistants are already resigned to this outcome, which is why some of them are already accepting jobs elsewhere. Three have jumped ship to the college ranks in the past few weeks.
“With two games to go, the Bears have made no public disclosures of their plans for coach Matt Nagy. But privately, they seem to know which direction they’re headed.
According to multiple sources, Chicago appears primed to have a new head coach for the 2022 season and is expected to begin its search for Nagy’s successor after Week 18…
…As an organization, the Bears rarely make rash moves during the season, with George McCaskey wanting to see the final product.
After that, the Bears brass will hold discussions, and the likely outcome is that they will move on from Nagy, sources say.”
This is the first domino everybody was waiting for.
Nagy is out. Only a complete 180 from George McCaskey can stop it from happening now. Many will argue this should’ve happened last year. The warning signs were already there that the man had no answers for the team’s steady decline from their peak moment in 2018. Yet ownership wanted to give him another chance to get things figured out. It didn’t work. A lot of it was his own shortcomings but also a significant degree of bad luck.
Three of the Bears’ 10 losses were after losing leads in the second half. Another two saw them close in the 4th quarter before the defense gave up late touchdowns to let it slip away. It truly feels like the team was a few bad bounces away from having at least three more wins on the schedule. Combined with injuries and a Covid outbreak, it was just too much to overcome. Now he’ll spend the coming offseason wondering how things might’ve been different.
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Matt Nagy is only the first question the Bears must answer
There is also GM Ryan Pace. He is the one who drafted Mitch Trubisky in 2017 and then hired Nagy the next year. They were supposed to be his versions of Drew Brees and Sean Payton. Both have proven to be massive disappointments. Those two decisions are a big reason why the Bears were forced to hand out some expensive contracts over the past couple of years, trying to keep the team competitive.
Now the roster is old with limited depth. McCaskey has to determine if he is willing to give Pace one more chance. To help reach the right answer to this, the Bears chairman has met with multiple “consultants” to discuss the state of the entire football operations. Credible people including two Hall of Fame head coaches. According to Jeff Hughes of Da Bears Blog, it sounds like their recommendation is to cut the cord.
This is not breaking news.
But if Ryan Pace is still the GM on January 10th, it’s because George McCaskey overruled some very smart people.
— DaBearsBlog (@dabearsblog) January 2, 2022
This would make sense.
Despite some really nice young talents he’s added over the past two years, it isn’t enough to justify keeping his job. In fact, many are surprised he even lasted this long. If the Bears want to get the best replacement possible for Matt Nagy, they can’t risk scaring away candidates because they refuse to move on from the GM. Better to wipe the slate clean. That should make the upcoming offseason all the more intriguing.
