A lot of people are uneasy about the road the Chicago Bears are going down with Matt Nagy. The last time they hired a head coach with an offensive background it ended in disaster. Marc Trestman, fresh from the CFL, took a team that was 10-6 in 2012 to 8-8 and finally 5-11. In the process he managed to transform a once great defense into arguably the worst in franchise history while at the same time alienating the quarterback he was hired to turn back into a Pro Bowler.
Fans still have nightmares about that time period. It’s understandable. One can’t forget that miserable stretch when the Bears gave up 50 points in back-to-back games against New England and Green Bay. It left people wondering as to where it all went wrong. The truth is the problems began almost from the very beginning.
Trestman proved that his personality didn’t fit the model of an NFL head coach. That became clear over time. However, he ended up making two key mistakes right after he was hired that ended up being the catalyst for becoming the only Bears head coach in the Super Bowl era to not last more than two seasons.
Not only that but those two mistakes? Nagy has already corrected them.
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Matt Nagy kept the quality defensive coordinator in place
Probably the biggest missed opportunity for Trestman was failing to convince then-defensive coordinator Rod Marinelli to stay aboard. Marinelli had just led the Bears defense a top five ranking in 2012. His players loved him. It was a no brainer to ask him to stay. Unfortunately the pitch Trestman made failed. Marinelli wasn’t sold on the idea and chose to resign. As a result the Bears were forced to hire Mel Tucker to replace him. The defense plummeted from fifth to 30th that season, giving up the most points in franchise history.
Meanwhile Nagy faced the exact same scenario. Vic Fangio had just led the defense to a top 10 finish. Ironically its first since 2012. Players were urging the team to convinced him to stay. It fell to the rookie head coach to make the sales pitch. He didn’t disappoint. Fangio, after some deliberation, chose to re-up with the Bears on a new three-year deal. It was a major victory for Nagy.
He also hired a more qualified QB specialist as offensive coordinator
Amazingly the Tucker move wasn’t the most puzzling hire that Trestman made in 2013. That was reserved for his decision to bring in Aaron Kromer as offensive coordinator. On the surface the hire made some sense. Kromer had just enjoyed an extended run of success as an assistant with the New Orleans Saints. At the same time he also didn’t serve a key purpose his position demanded. He had no background when it came to developing quarterbacks.
Kromer was primarily an offensive line specialist. He had no background whatsoever coaching QBs. He didn’t understand them or speak their language. So is it any surprise that he ended up being the one who turned Cutler against Trestman? It was revealed in 2014 that Kromer was the one that leaked the coaches’ frustration over Cutler’s struggles to the media. A decision he later had to apologize for.
Nagy made sure not to make that same mistake. The man he sought out for offensive cooridinator not only has coached the quarterback position extensively, he also played it. Mark Helfrich was an All-American QB at South Oregon in college. He became a quarterbacks coach in 1998 at Boise State and would hold that job for the next 14 years as he climbed his way to becoming head coach at Oregon.
His development of Marcus Mariota was proof enough he knows how to cultivate young talent at the position. Smart money says there won’t be any miscommunications involving Mitch Trubisky. With these key victories already under his belt, it sets Nagy up to have far more sustained success than Trestman ever did.
