People need to understand this. Matt Nagy is in a territory as a head coach that is relatively uncharted. Normally when a coach is hired specifically for his ability to elevate a young quarterback and that effort fails? It isn’t the quarterback who gets booted. It’s the coach. There are plenty of recent examples. Jameis Winston. Marcus Mariota. Alex Smith. Joey Harrington. This is because organizations aren’t willing to admit they missed on a top 5 quarterback. It has to be the coach.
The fact that the Chicago Bears ended up letting Mitch Trubisky go and kept Nagy? That is not the norm in this league. Far from it. Not only that, but they actually allowed him to draft his own quarterback in the 1st round. Trading up to get him, no less. This is the sort of thing that just doesn’t happen. In fact, only one head coach experienced a similar scenario going back the past few decades. Somebody ironically who has connections to the Bears.
Jeff Fisher.
Here is a man who basically is a tale of two careers. He was hailed as one of the better head coaches in the NFL from the late 1990s through most of the 2000s. A big reason for this was his ability to coach up the quarterback position. First with Steve McNair, then Vince Young, and even Kerry Collins. That track record was a big reason the St. Louis Rams hired him in 2012. They felt he had the chops to get the most out of former #1 pick Sam Bradford.
Fisher spent three years trying. There was some early success. Bradford threw for over 3,700 yards and 21 TDs that first year. Both career highs. He got off to a great start in 2013 as well. Then the injuries struck. He missed nine games that season and then all of 2014. By 2015, Fisher realized a change was needed. That change involved Nick Foles.
Subscribe to the BFR Youtube channel and ride shotgun with Dave and Ficky as they break down Bears football like nobody else.
Starting to sound eerily familiar?
Matt Nagy must learn his lesson from Fisher carefully
After that year was a bust, Fisher decided to go all-in on the 2016 draft. The Rams put together a massive trade package to move up to the #1 overall pick where they selected Cal standout, Jared Goff. He had the perfect plan in place. Veteran Case Keenum, who’d had some decent starts in the past would serve as a bridge quarterback while Goff took time to learn on the sideline.
Everything started out so well too. St. Louis began the season 3-1. Keenum played okay enough. That didn’t take long to change. An ugly loss to Buffalo in Week 5 started a streak that saw the Rams lose four in a row. Keenum was brutal during that stretch, throwing just five touchdowns to eight interceptions. Then after a 9-6 win over the Jets where the QB struggled again? Fisher had no choice. He went to the rookie hoping for some kind of spark.
He didn’t get it.
Goff went 0-7 the rest of the way, posting a pitiful 63.6 passer rating. It got so bad that Fisher didn’t even make it to the end of the season. He was fired with three games left. This is exactly the sort of cautionary tale Matt Nagy should fear. That he will inevitably feel pressure to play Fields when Andy Dalton starts to struggle, the rookie will look bad, and the Bears will decide to make a change.
This is why he wants to avoid starting the rookie at all costs. He knows exactly what fate awaits him if Fields goes out there and stinks. Nobody will blame the quarterback as they did with Mitch Trubisky. This time it will be squarely on the shoulders of the head coach.