Bears general manager Ryan Pace wasn’t going to fire Matt Nagy after a disappointing season that started with Super Bowl hopes and ended 8-8. And it was a virtual lock he wasn’t going to say anything that would put Nagy on the hot seat heading into 2020.
Nobody believes in his guys like Pace. But the ringing endorsement the Bears’ second-year head coach received from his boss Tuesday at Halas Hall raised a few eyebrows. As it turns out, a season of regression that had Nagy’s fingerprints all over it actually enhanced his standing in the eyes of Pace.
”Things are easy when you go 12-4,” Pace said. “For me this season, when you go through adversity for players and staff, it reveals a lot of things. And this season gives me even more confidence and conviction in him as our head coach for what we went through and how he handled it. Extreme confidence in him as our head coach; extreme confidence in him as our play-caller; and extreme confidence in him righting the ship and getting us back on the track we want to be on.”
Pace’s belief in Nagy as his head coach is understandable. Nagy has been expert in the “leader of men” role since Pace hired him in 2018. There’s no doubt that Nagy did an excellent job of keeping a sinking ship afloat at Halas Hall this year — evidenced by the sentiment expressed by many that their 8-8 season actually feels like 5-11.
Nagy’s leadership, communications skills and standing as the voice of the franchise have been exemplary. Unfortunately, his biggest shortcomings have been in the areas that got him the job in the first place: building an offense; developing a young quarterback; game-planning; and play-calling.
All four of those were a failure in 2020. The Bears’ offense rarely if ever had a defense on its heals, unsure of what was coming next. It rarely caused the conflict-of-assignment that left receivers wide open. And Mitch Trubisky regressed significantly in his second season under Nagy, a shell of his Pro Bowl-alternate self in 2019. Coming out of the bye, the Bears ran the ball a franchise-low seven times in a loss to the Saints, eliciting Nagy’s quote of the year: “I know we have to run the ball more. I’m not an idiot.”
We know Nagy is not an idiot. But 2019 was a reminder that just like Trubisky, Matt Nagy is learning and developing, too. And while Trubisky is in everybody’s cross-hairs, Nagy has the most to prove in 2020.
He has to prove 2018 wasn’t a mirage. He has to prove he can nurture Trubisky into a productive quarterback and turn Tarik Cohen into a weapon instead of a magnet. He has to prove he can out-wit Packers defensive coordinator Mike Pettine. Nagy has made his mistakes. Now he has to prove he learns well. And after firing offensive line coach Harry Hiestand, offensive coordinator Mark Helfrich and tight ends coach Kevin Gilbride, the pressure is squarely on Nagy to fix what has been broken.
Where does Nagy have to be better? Pace wasn’t about to get into specifics. “We are all in this together, so it’s improvement in him and I together,” Pace said. “When you go through these adverse moments, it strengthens our relationship. So together it’s a, ‘What do we need to do to improve our team? What can I do more to help him?’ — that’s going to be part of the process.”
In case it’s not obvious, the Pace-Nagy pairing has not suffered through a difficult season. On the contrary, Bears president Ted Phillips said, “I think it has grown stronger. That’s a great question because a lot of times those relationships, you start getting the finger pointing.
“I’m seeing none of that. They’ve gotten closer and I think they have more honest discussions as they’ve faced the adversity with the four-game losing streak, etc., this year. I’m proud of them for that. That’s not easy to do.”
