For years the Green Bay Packers have always been the more attractive destination for players to go. The reasoning is obvious enough. They’ve had so much success over the past three decades and employ arguably the best quarterback in the NFL. The Chicago Bears have constantly lagged behind, doing everything they can to keep up. Why would 2018 prove to be any different? Well, Matt Nagy provided the proof.
Many considered former Pro Bowl receiver Allen Robinson one of the two or three best free agents available on the market. Players of his talent caliber just don’t become available too often. Being able to score the 24-year old and pair him with Mitch Trubisky would’ve been a dream come true. However, the competition was going to be fierce.
Several suitors courted Robinson from the moment the negotiating window opened. There was no telling which direction things might turn. GM Ryan Pace had a reputation for losing out on big free agents before. This was a race he could not afford to flub. People don’t realize how close it came to the absolute nightmare scenario happening before his new head coach saved the day.
Matt Nagy stopped the Packers from luring Allen Robinson to Green Bay
Robinson spoke with Mike Kaye of First Coast News on his free agent journey. He explained how the negotiating process went. There were some heavy offers elsewhere but the two teams that became his finalists were the Bears……and the Packers. Indeed Green Bay made a late push to lure him north and seemed to almost succeed. So how did Chicago prevent such a calamity?
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“He garnered early interest from the New York Jets and the Cleveland Browns, two teams with enormous amounts of cap space. The Green Bay Packers also entered a bidding war for Robinson’s services.
In the end, it came down to the Packers and the Bears. Robinson chose the Windy City.
“With all things being equal, Chicago was a place I had my eyes on from a football standpoint,” Robinson said during a phone conversation with First Coast News.
“It’s a spot with a lot of benefits as far as it being close to home. The close-to-home thing was a very minimal factor but it was still a factor.”
Along with the geographical benefits of playing near his hometown of Detroit, Michigan, Robinson’s interest in Chicago was heightened by the hiring of new head coach Matt Nagy.”
The Nagy effect
Multiple reports over the past few weeks have indicated Nagy is a huge part of the Bears negotiating tactics. Sources informed me that he was a giant focal point to why the team was able to retain defensive coordinator Vic Fangio, who in turn was a big reason cornerback Kyle Fuller preferred to stay in Chicago. If one is keeping track that makes three consecutive times the Packers have tried to swipe a coveted Bears target and each time those targets chose to stay in Chicago.
Nagy is at the center of that, perhaps signaling that Pace made a wise decision making him the new head coach. No doubt Robinson is eager to see what he can do in that aggressive offensive system he’s putting together. Bears fans can just be thankful they don’t have to watch the receiver catch touchdowns from Aaron Rodgers at Soldier Field every year.
