People have grasped at the reason why Matt Nagy went from Coach of the Year after his first season to out of town by the end of his fourth. Everybody has their theories. Most of them center around the obvious. That was his inability to elevate the Chicago Bears offense to respectability. It never made sense considering he was a disciple of Andy Reid, one of the greatest offensive minds of this generation. Tom Thayer knows what happened. In fact, he had a pretty good idea of where it was headed back when Nagy first started.
The former Bears guard has followed the team since retiring, primarily as a color analyst alongside Jeff Joniak. In that time, he’s seen many offensive minds come and go in Chicago. He revealed to Bernstein & Holmes on 670 The Score that Nagy suffered from the same problem another supposed mastermind did when he joined the team in 2004. Fans might not remember the name Terry Shea, but Thayer sure does. The similarities between him and Nagy were abundant.
A big reason Shea was a failure centered on his overreliance on a bloated playbook. He was so focused on crafting smart plays to outwit the defense that he never focused on the need for good execution. As a result, the offense was always disjointed and became easy to stop. Sound familiar?
Tom Thayer knew Nagy couldn’t teach his players execution.
Having an extensive playbook isn’t necessarily bad. The problem is Nagy threw the entire thing at his players long before they were ready. He should’ve dumbed it down to a select array of plays that they executed well and focused on that. Then he could start sprinkling in more plays as their experience and confidence in the new system grew. Instead, he wanted to throw new wrinkles into the game plan every week, causing widespread confusion that led to constant mental mistakes.
Subscribe to the BFR Youtube channel and ride shotgun with Dave and Ficky as they break down Bears football like nobody else.
That is why Tom Thayer has high hopes for new offensive coordinator Luke Getsy. His system is predicated on the wide-zone scheme. While that offense can also be difficult to learn, it’s a system with a clear identity. Every player will know what their job is. Getsy will teach them every detail and demand perfect execution. Whether he’ll achieve that goal remains to be seen, but he at least has his priorities in the proper order.
