Matt Nagy is NFL Coach of the Year. He took a 5-11 team and turned them into division champions last season. Such an accomplishment has never been achieved by a Chicago Bears head coach in his first season before. It was validation that GM Ryan Pace had made the right choice to finally get this team pointed in the right direction.
Yet it seems not even Nagy is immune to criticism from time to time. The latest comes from none other than Dan Pompei of The Athletic. Most know him as royalty among Chicago sports writers, especially when it comes to the Bears. He’s so respected that he recently did the pitch for Brian Urlacher’s Hall of Fame case. Safe to say it was a smart choice.
Pompei has had plenty of praise for Nagy in the previous month, just like everybody else. Everything showered upon him is well-deserved. However, the writer also made it clear this doesn’t exempt the coach from criticism when it’s warranted. In this case, it comes down to the handling of running back Jordan Howard.
Jordan Howard trade raises concerns about Matt Nagy lack of flexibility
The center of Pompei’s critique is why the Bears chose to trade the former Pro Bowler. This idea that Howard just wasn’t a good fit for Nagy’s new offensive system. Therein lay the problem. The best head coaches in NFL history have tended to be ones who take good football players and mold the system around what they do best. The likes of Bill Belichick and Don Shula being prime examples.
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“And there’s an important takeaway here. The coaches who are most effective, especially over time, can make use of gifted players no matter their scheme. They design their offenses or defenses around the abilities of their players, instead of needing players with precise specifications to fit their schemes.”
It’s an interesting point. There have been minor rumors dating back to his time in Kansas City that Nagy has a reputation for being somewhat rigid with his system. The handling of Howard both on the field and then with the trade would seem to suggest this is at least partly true. How else does one explain his baffling fascination with Taquan Mizzell last season?
Now this doesn’t automatically make Nagy a bad coach. Not even close. What it does is raise a concern that he might not be able to get the most out of all of his players on offense because he simply can’t adjust the scheme enough to fit what they do best.
To be fair, one can’t put all of this on him.
Howard’s poor start to 2018 wasn’t just about the scheme. He looked slower than usual and didn’t show the same vision he’d been known for at times. Not until December did he finally get back on track, thanks in large part to some adjustments made to the blocking scheme by the offensive line. Something implemented by Nagy and his staff.
Then there’s the matter of money. The Bears are in the beginning stages of preparations for a significant number of contract extensions over the next year. Among the names included on that list are Cody Whitehair, Leonard Floyd, Eddie Jackson, Mitch Trubisky, and Tarik Cohen. They don’t have enough salary cap space to pay everybody.
With Howard in the final year of his rookie contract, the odds of him returning in 2020 were remote. By trading him, they at least got something in return for his departure. A sad but necessary sacrifice for the future financial stability of the team. Blaming this all on Nagy is easy, but not entirely fair.
