It didn’t have to be this way. The Chicago Bears had a chance. They saw how the 2020 season ended. A six-game losing streak to go from 5-1 to 8-8. Scoring nine points in a playoff loss to the Saints. All the signs were there. Matt Nagy wasn’t the right man to run this Chicago Bears team. His offense wasn’t fooling anybody and has only seemed to get worse whenever he’s the one calling the plays. George McCaskey didn’t care.
On January 12th, the team chairman stepped in front of a personal camera and read a statement declaring his intent to retain both Nagy and GM Ryan Pace in their respective positions. This after consulting several people both inside and outside Halas Hall including other NFL owners. His reasoning was straightforward if nothing else. He believed the high character and leadership of the two men outweighed their past mistakes.
“Ryan and Matt are men of character,” McCaskey said. “I’ve been most impressed with how well they collaborate. I was impressed with both of them this past season, especially during the six-game losing streak. The fact that our players never gave up is a tribute to the players.
“It is also indicative of the type of players that Ryan acquires and to the players’ regard for Matt as their head coach. Have mistakes been made? Yes. But I think both Ryan and Matt are learning and growing in their roles.”
Character doesn’t mean much when it’s so obvious how outclassed your team is.
Head coaches have to be able to excel at other things besides just leadership. Game management, game planning, and forging an identity. These are all things Nagy has routinely proven unable to do. That is why every time the Bears run into an opponent with a good head coach, they are always on the losing side of the equation. Yet McCaskey insisted over and over keeping him was best for the franchise.
“I want to take a moment to tell Bears fans, we understand your frustration,” McCaskey said. “We’re frustrated, too. And it would be a perfectly natural reaction to say, ‘Back up the truck. Major overhaul.’ Whatever you want to call it. After one particularly dispiriting loss this season, a season-ticket holder sent me an email that read: ‘Fire somebody. We deserve better.’
“I get it. You deserve your Bears being winners. The decisions we’re announcing today might not be the easiest or most popular, but we believe they’re the best decisions for the Bears.”
Fans would probably pay a ton of their hard-earned money to know exactly what McCaskey is thinking right now. He had a nice seat to watch that fiasco in Cleveland. A game that saw the Bears make dubious NFL history again with the second-fewest total yards in a game this century and a young quarterback in Justin Fields get sacked nine times. Nagy’s character sure stood out in that one.
Subscribe to the BFR Youtube channel and ride shotgun with Dave and Ficky as they break down Bears football like nobody else.
George McCaskey made his bed and now it’s time to lay in it
Failing to pull the trigger on a change carried a huge risk. McCaskey banked that given a chance to find his own QB would allow Nagy to show everybody his offense can work. Now three games into 2021, the Bears rank 31st in scoring and dead last in total yards. It doesn’t matter who the quarterback is. It’s gone through two 1st round picks and a former Super Bowl MVP. The system isn’t broken. It was never functional from the start.
If ownership thought fans were angry before, they’re getting a wake-up call now. It is rare to see people unified in a common cause often in sports but Bears fandom is 100% done with Nagy. They don’t care about his character or his leadership. He is doing way more harm than good at this point. George McCaskey has nobody but himself to blame for it. He had his chance to seek changes and he passed.
Now the team is once again stuck exactly where it’s been the past two years.
Boasting a defense good enough to win in the playoffs and an offense that might struggle against high school opponents. This was supposed to be a new era. Instead, the Bears are right back where they were in the early 2000s. Being laughed at by the rest of the NFL. Except this time it’s even worse because they actually have talent at quarterback. McCaskey is responsible for this embarrassment. His good intentions at the time mean nothing.
