This offseason isn’t exactly going how Chicago Bears fans were hoping. Then again it’s not like their expectations were high to begin with. Yet somehow the team still failed to exceed them. Kyle Fuller was released. Andy Dalton was their “big” acquisition at quarterback. What exactly is there to get excited about with this team? Not much. Then somehow head coach Matt Nagy managed to make it even better.
Towards the end of his press conference on Friday, he dropped a mini bomb. Coming up this 2021 season, he would resume play calling duties on offense. Nagy gave them up during the second half of last season to Bill Lazor. A move necessitated by how poorly the offense was playing at the time. Things seemed to stabilize and the team managed to make a late run to sneak into the playoffs.
With a fresh quarterback in play, the head coach wants the call sheet back.
Matt Nagy said he will be the Bears' play-caller this season.
— Chris Emma (@CEmma670) April 2, 2021
#Bears HC Matt Nagy right now on who’s calling the plays this year: “I’m gonna be the one calling the plays this year … the fun part right now is building what we wanna do better… getting that right.” Excited about the collaboration with his staff.
— StaceyDales (@StaceyDales) April 2, 2021
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This decision can’t be considered a huge surprise. It’s possible this season could be Nagy’s last. Everybody knows he is on the hot seat. If he is going to go down, he’d likely prefer to go down doing things his way. One has to respect that decision. In addition to that, it also sends a pretty clear message that the head coach never felt like his play calling was the primary issue last season. It was more the quarterback issues.
With Dalton in the fold, he’d ready to give it another go. The 33-year old isn’t exactly Tom Brady, but one doesn’t make three Pro Bowls by accident. He is a smart and efficient QB known for his ability to read the field and make good decisions. His style of play fits the type of offense Nagy wants to run. It’ll come down to whether the offensive line can give him better protection than they gave Nick Foles last year.
Matt Nagy was givens another chance and is seizing it
Lots of people don’t like his play calling. They feel he was the bigger part of the problem with the Bears offense. Then again, nobody can determine that for sure. They can’t be certain which plays were called in certain situations and whether Trubisky changed the play when he shouldn’t have or just failed to execute it. People always talk about the poor calls Nagy made. They don’t give him enough credit for how many times the call was 100% correct but the players failed to execute it properly.
How many wide open receivers or tight ends did he engineer that Trubisky or Foles outright missed? More than people would probably care to admit. This is not to defend Matt Nagy from his mistakes. He deserves plenty of responsibility for the problems this offense continues to have. Yet facts are facts. It’s hard to engineer top 15 production with bad quarterback play.
So what happens if they get average?
That is what Dalton is. He’s average. Nagy believes he can get the offense to function better now. This QB has the necessary traits to make it happen. The sharp intellect and good field vision. He can be Nagy’s version of Alex Smith in Chicago. It doesn’t have to be flashy. Only efficient. This team is good enough to win with efficiency.
