Matt Nagy won the NFC North last year and missed the playoffs this season.
Mike Zimmer rode that rollercoaster twice in his Vikings coaching career, winning the division in 2015 and 2017 and missing the playoffs in 2016 and 2018.
Twice in the last three years, he’s debated the question the Bears coach must try to figure out this offseason: what players and assistant coaches can — or can’t — help the team return to the playoffs?
Zimmer’s defensive staff has been with the Vikings since his arrival in 2014, but his offensive coaches are new. Four offensive assistants are in their first season in Minnesota.
“You step back and kind of have an idea by the end of the season what you’re maybe thinking about, ‘Is there someone out there that you know or you like that you think is good?’” said Zimmer, whose Vikings host the Bears in Sunday’s season finale. “All those different variables come into play. And then you just kinda do what you think is best for the team.”
Nagy might have to do just that next week. He’s made it clear that he expects his defensive staff to remain intact but the same can’t be said about the other side of the ball. Nagy has vowed to turn over every stone in trying to fix the offense — and that could lead to staffing turnover.
Perhaps Nagy insists on keeping his offensive staff together. But the Bears can’t finish the season second-to-last in yards per play and points per game and not do anything, right?
Right?
“That’s a part of my job as a head coach, is to make sure that I look at all silos,” Nagy said. “Whatever that is, I need to make sure that I do that. And it’s hard right now when you’re in the middle of everything, to be able to come to emotional decisions either way — players, coaches, etc. But that’s something that we handle when the time comes.”
It’s unclear whether firing an assistant or two would represent real change anyway — Nagy calls the Bears’ plays and figures to do the same next year.
Offensive coordinator Mark Helfrich — who, like the rest of Nagy’s staff, is finishing his second season with the head coach — knows the reality of the profession.
“The same thing happens every year,” he said. “That’s something that, when you’re in this business, stuff happens. And that’s a possibility.”
It was instructive for Nagy to replace almost his entire defensive staff last year when coordinator Vic Fangio took the Broncos head coaching job and took two assistants with him.
“I remember it being pretty much a whirlwind,” Nagy said. “It was for a lot of good reasons. That’s something, for me, again, that was an experience that I went through for coaches that stayed and coaches that didn’t stay, or left. I think throughout this whole process for me, there’s been a lot of learning — in a good way.”
Both defensive coordinator Chuck Pagano — the former Colts head coach — and Zimmer stressed the value of stepping away and reflecting before making any wholesale offseason changes. Zimmer even retreats to his ranch in Kentucky to rest and reset.
That’s impossible when it comes to assistant coaches, though, because of the “whirlwind” job scramble the first two weeks after the season ends.
Nagy will conduct player exit interviews Monday and then sit down with his staff. He’s been taking notes all year, and he plans to revisit them.
“You don’t forget,” Nagy said. “And then you use that when the time comes at the end of the year.”
