Mitch Trubisky has gotten the majority of the criticism in 2019 for the failures of this Chicago Bears team. His inability to elevate his play and put more points on the board after such a promising 2018 is a key reason the team is 6-6 with playoff hopes on life support. However, some are coming to the QB’s defense by blaming other areas. It’s poor blocking up front. It’s no running game. The receivers are dropping too many passes. Then there is the scheme itself under Matt Nagy.
The Bears head coach has endured a ton of blowback for how ineffective his offense has been this year despite it being the second season of its implementation. This is when systems generally start to gel better. That has not happened. Some are questioning his ability as a play caller, which isn’t good considering that’s one of the key reasons the Bears hired him in the first place.
It is for this reason that some are starting to champion the idea of making a change going into 2020. Among those who seem in favor of this is former player and current ESPN analyst Domonique Foxworth. He doesn’t think the talk of removing Nagy is crazy at all, and even has a name in mind as a replacement.
“In order to prepare, you must think ahead of think of every eventuality and I think entertaining the idea of a coaching switch is not crazy. I don’t think Mike (Greenberg) is here campaigning to fire the coach in the same way he might do for the Jets. He’s just saying it’s worth considering when all these things are lined up that maybe Rivera and Cam (Newton) together can recreate the great defense and Cam-based offense they had success with in Carolina.”
Foxworth wasn’t done. He doubled down when challenged.
“I don’t think anybody is arguing that it should happen. It’s just that it should be a possibility. And the idea that he was Coach of the Year last year? So what? Coach of the Year is an award based on how writers feel about a coach. It doesn’t mean that he’s actually a good coach.”
Matt Nagy has so much to prove in December
The odds of this actually happening are remote. Unless the Bears completely wet the bed over the final four games with four-straight blowout losses, Nagy is likely to be back in 2020 for one more season. One can’t deny that in spite of the disappointment of this season, his team has continued to battle through adversity. Trubisky has settled down and played better of late. The team is at .500 and have a 3-1 record against the NFC North.
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This isn’t exactly a total disaster. Yet. This coming stretch of games will reveal a lot about Nagy as a coach, on and off the field. The Bears are playing four-straight playoff contenders in Dallas, Green Bay, Kansas City, and Minnesota. The odds of winning the all and reaching the playoffs are remote but it will be interesting to see how competitive they are. The idea of Rivera returning to Chicago certainly sounds romantic, but it’s unlikely at this point in time.
Nagy has done enough to warrant a little more time to figure this thing out. The Bears will likely give it to him.
