When your offense finishes 27th in the league for a season, it’s inevitable every facet of it will be criticized. For Matt Nagy, he had a lot of people become increasingly vocal about his play calling over the course of last season. His love affair with throwing the football too much combined with a stubborn refusal to adapt more to the talents of his players led to a growing chorus calling for the Chicago Bears head coach to hand the call sheet to somebody else.
It just felt like he was trying to apply the Kansas City Chiefs’ offensive style to a roster that was not equipped to run it. Fans and media both were flabbergasted by some of his game plans during the season, which led to some ghastly performances, especially in the first halves of games. See the debacles against New Orleans and Kansas City for an idea.
According to Adam Jahns of The Athletic, plenty of people around the NFL itself are also skeptical of Nagy remaining the play caller.
“Multiple sources in the league referenced Matt Nagy’s play calling as being questionable at times during the 2019 season, either for not properly supporting Trubisky or not easily adapting.
Nagy appeared to change his tune at the combine. Having already restructured his coaching staff, Nagy said that he was open to adjusting his scheme while acknowledging what he did in 2019 clearly did not work.”
Matt Nagy appears to maybe have learned his lesson
Sometimes ego can get in the way of progress. Especially for a younger coach like Nagy. Everything just seemed to work for him in 2018. The offense ran the ball well. Trubisky made the Pro Bowl. The Bears went 12-4. Why should he expect there is anything wrong with his play calling? He needed a year like 2019 to be reminded that the NFL adapts faster than any professional sports league in existence.
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Marc Trestman and Mike Martz failed to heed that lesson and they’re out of the league now.
Nagy, to his credit at least appears open now to make adjustments. He completely overhauled his coaching staff in January. Four new members arrived. All of them bringing significant NFL experience. The plan appears to be a full-fledged effort to shuffle the scheme to better fit the personnel.
“Now that I’ve had two years with this personnel and kind of building it and knowing who we are, it’s so much easier to watch scheme eval and know what this guy does well, his weaknesses and his strengths, and so now, with that, it’s not fair to force them into something that I do. Now, if you can get some of it that you do well, let’s keep it going, but this is a clean slate and we want to make sure we give everybody the best opportunity.”
Encouraging, if nothing else.
Nagy is up against the wall this coming season. He has a roster many feel is capable of making a deep playoff run. Much of that thanks to an outstanding defense. If his offense once again fails to deliver in 2020, the Bears will have to reassess whether he truly is the right man for the job.
