The most important regular-season week of Matt Nagy’s young head coaching career is actually two.
He spent the bye week trying to fix the Bears’ offense by examining his own tendencies and scheming ways to better run the football. Only three teams — the Dolphins, Bengals and Jets, with a combined record of 1-15 — average fewer than the Bears’ 3.5 yards per carry.
This week, Nagy’s preparing for the 5-1 Saints. And trying to sort through whether injured quarterback Mitch Trubisky can start.
Along with general manager Ryan Pace, Nagy helped maneuver through a sensitive situation, deciding to put veteran Kyle Long on injured reserve with a hip injury, all-but-ending his Bears tenure Tuesday. They’re still deciding whether to put defensive end Akiem Hicks on IR, another difficult decision in a season full of them.
“It’s a situation where, for me as the leader, everything starts with me,” Nagy said Monday. “So with these players, with the coaches, it all begins there. I want to make sure that my personality and who I am never gets affected and never changes.
“We talked about it — there are a lot of things that have gone on this year in the first five weeks of the season that didn’t really necessarily happen last year in the first season.”
Nagy has faced more adversity thus far this season than he did all last year, from injuries to Roquan Smith’s personal issue to the Bears’ offense — his baby — ranking third-to-last in yards per game.
Nagy spent the bye week self-scouting his own plays and tendencies.
“I got to step back and look at the 30,000-foot view for me, as to where am I at right now and how can I help make my part make us better,” Nagy said. “Whatever that part is, whether that’s Xs and Os, whether that’s leadership skills, communication, whatever that is, I feel like I have a good grip on that. So we’ll see where that goes. That’s to me where it starts. …
“And then as far as the decision-making goes, there’s a bunch of us that make decisions, but those come and go, but there are going to be tough decisions. That’s why I’m in this role right now.”
There’s no questioning the leadership acumen of the reigning NFL Coach of the Year. His play-calling, though, hasn’t kept up pace.
“Especially on offense with some of the struggles that we’ve had, you get caught up in that and consume yourself with it,” he said. “There’s a right way and a wrong way with it and I feel like the past several days, really all of last week, I’ve had a good balance of being able to reflect, kinda reload on where we are.
“And I feel good with the stuff that we’ve done as a staff, that we’ve discussed where we’re at and then looking for solutions.”
Bears players got last week off, a strategy used by Andy Reid, Nagy’s mentor, who is 17-3 following byes. The coaching staff did not. Frustrated by the Raiders loss, they met Tuesday and Wednesday at Halas Hall before Nagy sent them home for the rest of the week. They all continued to work.
“When my kids are at home and they’re around I’m a dad and that’s what they get,” he said. “When they’re not around then my mind is staying put on football.”
It remains there this week, as Nagy tries to prove his can revive his offense — and a season that, thus far, has proven disappointing.
“For us, five games into it, we could be in a lot different scenario — and we’re not,” Nagy said. “And I promise you that what we’re going to get from here on out with us as a team is guys that come to work every day, coaches that come to work every day that are positive, energetic, having fun and just worrying about today.”
