The Chicago Bears are in the midst of one of their greatest single-season turnarounds in franchise history. If they were to win out to finish 13-3, it would tie for the best ever with the 2001 Bears who finished with that record after going 5-11 the year before. The odds of it happening are remote but even going from 5-11 to 10-6 or 11-5 is a remarkable achievement, and Matt Nagy deserves so much of the credit.
The Bears head coach arrived at Halas Hall like a fresh breeze to a sunbaked desert. Chicago has been starved for a capable man at that job for years. Somebody with new ideas who could get the players elevated to play at their potential. Nagy, despite being just 39-years old with just 10 years of coaching experience in his life, has done that.
His offense ranks 5th in scoring. Mitch Trubisky is playing some of the most efficient quarterbacking seen in years. Receivers are wide open and scoring touchdowns. Then there’s the defense which is playing at a level not seen since the end of the Lovie Smith era. Sure much of that is due to Vic Fangio and a star-studded lineup but Nagy has played his part.
This would explain why Sports Illustrated has him as one of the favorites to win NFL Coach of the Year.
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Matt Nagy has the Chicago Bears thinking big in December
The top of the list is filled with mostly veteran names. Andy Reid is there with his Kansas City Chiefs sitting atop the AFC behind breakout star QB Patrick Mahomes. Sean Payton is there with his juggernaut New Orleans Saints. Bill O’Brien is also there after helping his team to win eight-straight after starting the year 0-3. Then there’s Nagy.
“Nagy is this year’s rags-to-riches candidate; a coach who took a dead-in-the-water franchise from the year before and, with similar parts, molded it into a potential division winner. Khalil Mack helps, but Mitchell Trubisky is growing by leaps and bounds this year. That’s more than a year of maturation, that’s a coach who understands how to put his quarterback in the best spot.”
It’s a pretty close race at this point with each man having their merits. However, one could say that Reid, Payton, and O’Brien started from far more advantageous positions. Their systems were already in places as were most of their key personnel. This was not so for Nagy. He took over the team in January and had to shuffled the entire depth chart with new players.
Then he had to get those players ingrained in the systems he had and get them playing at a level high enough to win football games consistently. Now the Bears are 8-3 and going into December with a winning record for the first time in five years. What a job.
