Things seemed to be going so well. Mitch Trubisky had just concluded a Pro Bowl season in 2018. The Chicago Bears went 12-4 and were a bad field goal kick away from knocking off the defending Super Bowl champions in the wild card round. Optimism was high. The team had talent on both sides of the ball. Their young quarterback was showing signs of serious growth. He and head coach Matt Nagy seemed to have a strong relationship. All the Bears had to do was maintain the status quo, and things should continue trending in the right direction.
However, one minor addition to the coaching staff would change everything. Most Bears fans don’t remember the hiring of Brad Childress. The former Minnesota Vikings head coach was hired as an extra voice in the building to help continue Trubisky’s development. He was inconsequential in most’s minds. That couldn’t have been further from the truth. According to Tyler Dunne of Go Long, Childress played the primary role in turning Nagy against his quarterback, leading to the Bears’ disastrous downfall.
Several people inside Halas Hall saw it unfold.
Here’s how one member of the Bears front office recalls the coaching addition: “We bring in Brad Childress and he completely poisons our building.”
Very early, Childress warned Nagy not to hitch his wagon to Trubisky. He cited various personality test scores that other teams use, one of which Trubisky did not score well on. Childress even printed the scores out for offensive coaches to see. His point: This data brought to life their worst suspicions on film.
Pace was understandably irate because right here is how coaches and GMs create problems out of thin air to get themselves fired. The total 180 made no sense.
Naturally, Nagy listened to his mentor and, sources say, drastically changed his tune on Trubisky. The first practice in camp didn’t seem eventful to most, but the head coach fumed. He was pissed. He started ridiculing the quarterback to others in the organization, practice to practice, clearly losing belief at warp speed. Bad energy that spilled into the season opener, a hideous 10-3 loss to the Green Bay Packers at Soldier Field on Sunday Night Football. Trubisky looked nothing like the quarterback nearly piloting a playoff win 242 days ago in this same stadium…
…“Before we even start the first game of the season, the head coach had major red-ass for the quarterback,” said one Bears source with a front-row seat to their interactions. “He played how he was treated that year. Bottom line.”
Everything was positive. Until, it wasn’t. Nagy was soon shredding Trubisky in front of the entire team in meetings.
Matt Nagy changed his entire career with one useless hire.
It is crazy to think he might still be the head coach of the Bears had he not decided to add Childress. The former Vikings coach has a reputation for locker room politicking and causing unnecessary drama. It was part of why he was fired less than a year after reaching the NFC championship with the Vikings and why he didn’t last long in Kansas City. Yet Nagy still thought he’d be an asset in the Bears’ building. All he did was stir up dysfunction where none existed. His fear-mongering turned Nagy against Mitch Trubisky, who eventually saw his confidence shattered. He never again looked like the player who finished that 2018 season.
One year after doing all that damage, Childress retired. The man had been worse than useless to the organization, leaving a trail of destruction in his wake. The Bears fell apart over the next two years as the relationship between Matt Nagy and Trubisky soured. This led to the addition of Nick Foles in 2020 and, finally, the desperate Hail Mary move to draft Justin Fields in 2021. How different would things have been if Childress never showed up? Hearing this stuff makes you wonder if that team would’ve achieved so much more than it did.
WoW! Just Wow, So many thoughts and none really having anything to do with the details of this article…like What Bullshit. This would make Nagy BY FAR the BIGGEST POS to come down the pike of Bears history. It’s perfectly fitting that this bacteria is being spread by some Petulant asshats on the SCORE. And Finally, 6 years ago? Are you F*cking kidding me??! Spend time with your family, Erik.
JMHO, but there was about a half season there where Mitch was probably the 2nd or 3rd most dangerous QB running outside the pocket. I saw him do some damage against the Pats. He’s gotten better, but his intermediate accuracy is bad. Maybe it will come together for him and a few others. It’s just too much of a factory cycling them through college before they can read a defense.
@barry-mccockiner – I agree that Mitch was never a top talent at QB. But NFL.com’s draft gurus rated him well ahead of Drake Maye, CJ Stroud, Bryce Young, Jayden McDaniels and… Caleb Williams.
So somebody saw *something* in him.
You are right to point out that two things can be correct at the same time. Mitch wasn’t the answer, but the mismanagement was colossal. And most of the local media defended Pace until the day he was fired.
Then, all of a sudden, he had always been a terrible GM. Fascinating, isn’t it?
This is why Ryan Pace was a failure. As soon as it started he should have grabbed Childress by the scruff of the neck and planted his boot squarely in his azz. Out the door. Goodbye. Don’t forget to write. Nagy was clearly a joke, too. Mitch had just taken the team to the playoffs – first time in 8 years. I don’t think Mitch was ever going to be a top 10 QB, even if Bill Walsh had coached him. But, just like Cutler, and Justin Fields, there were things he did well enough that he could have been… Read more »
If Childress is Rasputin, then what does that make Nagy? Or Pace? I thought something rotten or extreme had to have happened. This story then is plausible and probably true. These three stooges discredit Trubisky and hence undermine the whole team. They deserved more than a firing, but also blame and ridicule to say the least.