The Chicago Bears have never fired a head coach in the middle of the season. Perhaps that policy should change with Matt Nagy.
We are now past the one-third part of the 2021 season. As has been the case since Chicago Bears head coach Matt Nagy’s arrival, the offense continues to struggle. Currently, the offense ranks 30th in points scored and 32nd in total yards. While the running game ranks in the top ten in most categories, the passing game is awful. It ranks dead last in yards, touchdowns, and yards per attempt.
Nagy came to Chicago with the reputation of being an offensive mastermind. That hasn’t been the case so far, though. Even in the 2018 season, Nagy’s first and no doubt best season in Chicago, the offense wasn’t good. Yes, it ranked 9th in points scored, but the defense scoring six touchdowns had a lot to do with that. It ranked 21st in total yards and interceptions.
Nagy also had a reputation for being a quarterback whisperer. Alex Smith had his best season when Nagy coached him with the Kansas City Chiefs. Also, Nagy was instrumental in having the Chiefs draft Patrick Mahomes.
In Chicago, however, he wasn’t able to help Mitchell Trubisky. Trubisky couldn’t throw the deep ball and he kept making the same mistakes his entire time with the Bears.
Some criticized Nagy by saying he tried to fit Trubisky into his system and not the other way around. He tried to make Trubisky a pocket quarterback, thus curtailing his ability to use his legs to make plays.
Nagy shoots himself in the foot
So, things didn’t work out with Trubisky. The Bears let him walk in free agency. The front office went out and picked up Andy Dalton to be the starting quarterback. Then, they somehow found themselves in a position to move up in the draft to select one of the top quarterback prospects in the draft, Justin Fields.
Fields has all the tools to be a superstar in the NFL. He has the arm and accuracy to go deep. He uses his legs to make plays. Best of all, he has experience in big games. He played in one of the top conferences in the league and led his team, the Ohio State Buckeyes to multiple College Football Playoff appearances.
Drafting Fields elicited a lot of excitement from the fans. They felt they finally found their franchise quarterback. There is a long list of quarterbacks in Bears’ history, but not many of them were very good.
Nagy had another chance to show that the reputation he had was deserved. Instead, he created a big controversy.
Nagy committed to Dalton from the beginning and nothing but an injury would change his mind. He wanted to use the Kansas City experiment with Mahomes (in which they sat him down his entire rookie season) in Chicago. He never had a competition. If the rookie couldn’t handle things against Dalton, everyone would see. Instead, he invited criticism and questions every time Dalton made a mistake.
History repeats itself
A Dalton knee injury in Week 2 forced Fields in. With Dalton not able to go for a couple of weeks, Fields became the starter. He had his first career start in Week 3 against the Cleveland Browns.
That was one of the worst showings by the Chicago Bears in franchise history. It seemed that the game plan Nagy used was supposed to be for Dalton. The Browns sacked Fields nine times. Additionally, they held the offense to just 47 total yards and just one passing yard.
Here is how bad Nagy’s offense has been: This season, the offense averages 4.3 yards per play. His predecessor, John Fox, was no offensive genius. However, the Bears averaged 4.9 yards per play with his coaching.
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All the same criticisms people had for Nagy’s coaching of Trubisky came up with Fields. He had Fields just drop back all the time and not utilize his legs. There were no quick slants or screens that could take advantage of Cleveland’s aggressiveness. Nagy seemed content with the beating Fields took.
Fields did bounce back the next week against the Detroit Lions. However, Nagy wasn’t calling plays. He did say, though, that the game plan went through him. Perhaps that explains the fact that the majority of the time FIelds is still a drop-back quarterback. There are drives here and there that utilize Fields’ abilities but they are too few and far between.
Now people are wondering if Trubisky’s struggles with the Chicago Bears had more to do with Nagy than with him. A lot of the same problems are popping up with Fields that also happened with Trubisky.
It is time to go and the team shouldn’t wait
The Chicago Bears never fired a coach in the middle of a season. That is true despite the way the team quit on Marc Trestman. There was also the end of Mike Ditka‘s tenure when he spent his time insulting reporters and throwing gum at fans.
The time to change that policy is upon us. We cannot afford to have Nagy deal with Fields the same way he did with Trubisky. This is the time Fields needs to develop so he can step up next season. The roster next season will be completely overhauled. The Bears have 31 players due to hit free agency. Also, there are a few more who can have buyouts in their contracts. That means Chicago can hit the free agency market hard and build a real team around Fields.
All the time spent underutilizing Fields this season makes it more difficult for him to succeed next season. Nagy’s priority should be to find out what Fields’ strengths and weaknesses are so he could develop quickly.
The Bears are in the middle of a tough stretch of games. They played the Las Vegas Raiders in Week 5. The Raiders were 3-1 and had a high-powered offense heading into the game. The Bears did a good job of winning that game. They lost last week to the hated Green Bay Packers.
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Now, the Bears have to face Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. After that, they face the San Francisco 49ers, the Pittsburgh Steelers, and the Baltimore Ravens. Later, they have another game against the Packers, and after that, they have games against the Arizona Cardinals and the Seattle Seahawks.
If Nagy continues to hold FIelds and the offense back, things could get very ugly for the Bears.
Things can get worse. We’re already seeing other areas of coaching that are hurting. In the Packers game, Nagy called a timeout to have more time to decide whether to challenge a ball placement. Sure, he won the challenge, but it still cost the Bears a timeout, something that happens when you challenge and LOSE. If the call went against him, the Bears then would lose Two timeouts.
Things shouldn’t have to fall completely apart before the McCaskeys do something. Things might not be great with a temporary replacement, but a new voice could be a pick-me-up for the players. Additionally, by firing Nagy, they could take a step forward over other teams who might be looking for a new head coach this offseason. The quicker they jump on looking for a replacement the better things will be for the team moving forward.