GM Ryan Pace made the move to trade for Nick Foles a few months back. That makes people think he was the driving force behind it. This is not true. Anybody with common sense knows this was a Matt Nagy play. The head coach had significant history with the veteran quarterback. He wanted somebody on the roster he could trust and would put some pressure on Mitch Trubisky. Some even think he’s already planning for Foles to be the eventual starter. That this competition is merely a way to help Trubisky save face.
Either way, one thing is clear. The Bears made the right call. It’s easy to forget Nagy didn’t technically choose Mitch as his quarterback. He agreed to coach him when he took over the team. However, details have emerged in recent months that the North Carolina standout wasn’t his top choice when he was offensive coordinator in Kansas City. While he embraced the challenge of making Trubisky a success, the signs are there that Nagy might be done with that experiment. He wanted his own guy.
People weren’t sure Pace, who has remained a hardline supporter of his former top pick, would acquiesce. In the end, he did. That decision actually goes against the typical track record the Bears have had for many years. They have not always factored in the wishes of their head coach regarding the QB position.
Matt Nagy is getting something others didn’t quite get
Exhibit A – Mike Ditka and Doug Flutie
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Da Coach always had a somewhat contentious relationship with Bears management. Especially after George Halas died. That was never more evident than in early 1987. Ditka had been a major advocate of the team trading for ex-USFL standout Doug Flutie in 1986, whose rights were held by the Los Angeles Rams. The coach was a big fan of the undersized quarterback and didn’t wait too long putting him on the field. Much to the anger of several Bears veterans including Jim McMahon.
Ahead of the NFL draft in ’87, Michael McCaskey declared the team planned to pick a quarterback. Ditka was not on board with that. Dan Pompei of The Athletic revealed how it went down.
“DITKA STILL BELIEVED FLUTIE HAD A FUTURE AND DIDN’T WANT A QUARTERBACK. HE ARGUED TO TAKE LINEBACKER ALEX GORDON IN THE FIRST ROUND. TOBIN, WHO WAS IN CHARGE OF PERSONNEL AT THAT POINT, AGREED WITH MCCASKEY THAT A QUARTERBACK WAS NEEDED, AND THEY OVERRULED DITKA.
THE BEARS CHOSE JIM HARBAUGH WITH THE 26TH PICK IN THE FIRST ROUND.”
The Ditka-Harbaugh relationship was never harmonious. It was even combative at times. They did have some success together in 1990 and 1991, but it’s hard not to wonder how things could’ve been different if the coach had gotten his way with Flutie.
Exhibit B – Marc Trestman and Jay Cutler
Look nobody is saying that Trestman was a great coach, but one of the reasons he got the job was a commitment to get more out of Jay Cutler at quarterback. The two started off well enough. Then the QB injured his ankle. Josh McCown stepped in, started five games, and had 13 touchdowns to one interception while going 3-2. He was one of the hottest quarterbacks in the league by December. Yet Trestman still went back to Cutler when he was finally healthy.
There were rumblings even then that he might’ve secretly preferred to stick with McCown but the Bears had invested so much in Cutler by that point. They needed to see what he looked like in that offense. As a result, McCown left in free agency and Cutler earned a seven-year deal from the Bears for $126 million. Considering how a rift formed between he and Trestman just months later, it’s not hard to wonder if that relationship was forced together by management. One that ended in absolute disaster.
Exhibit C – John Fox and Mitch Trubisky
This one is far and away the most egregious and well-known. There were strong rumors that the Bears would still draft a quarterback in 2017 even after signing Mike Glennon in free agency. It was just a matter of who it would be. Everybody knows the story. Pace traded up to grab Mitch Trubisky at #2 overall. A player he’d had eyes for going back months.
What didn’t come out until later was that then-head coach John Fox did not want Trubisky. He’d personally coveted Clemson’s Deshaun Watson, fresh off his national championship win. So it’s little wonder the Bears kept him out of the loop when the move for Trubisky happened. Pace knew how he’d react.
Thus the Bears soured that relationship from the start, pairing a coach with a QB he didn’t really want. Fox was gone a year later and Nagy came to town, similar to how Trestman did five years prior. Under an agreement he’d do everything possible to make the high-priced guy a success. Also like Cutler, there was some early success but things fell apart by the second year.
Maybe that mistake back in 2017 taught Pace a harsh lesson. The coach’s opinion on who the quarterback should be matters. Thus the move for Foles was made.