People have grasped at the reason why Matt Nagy went from Coach of the Year after his first season to out of town by the end of his fourth. Everybody has their theories. Most of them center around the obvious. That was his inability to elevate the Chicago Bears offense to respectability. It never made sense considering he was a disciple of Andy Reid, one of the greatest offensive minds of this generation. Tom Thayer knows what happened. In fact, he had a pretty good idea of where it was headed back when Nagy first started.
The former Bears guard has followed the team since retiring, primarily as a color analyst alongside Jeff Joniak. In that time, he’s seen many offensive minds come and go in Chicago. He revealed to Bernstein & Holmes on 670 The Score that Nagy suffered from the same problem another supposed mastermind did when he joined the team in 2004. Fans might not remember the name Terry Shea, but Thayer sure does. The similarities between him and Nagy were abundant.
A big reason Shea was a failure centered on his overreliance on a bloated playbook. He was so focused on crafting smart plays to outwit the defense that he never focused on the need for good execution. As a result, the offense was always disjointed and became easy to stop. Sound familiar?
Tom Thayer knew Nagy couldn’t teach his players execution.
Having an extensive playbook isn’t necessarily bad. The problem is Nagy threw the entire thing at his players long before they were ready. He should’ve dumbed it down to a select array of plays that they executed well and focused on that. Then he could start sprinkling in more plays as their experience and confidence in the new system grew. Instead, he wanted to throw new wrinkles into the game plan every week, causing widespread confusion that led to constant mental mistakes.
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That is why Tom Thayer has high hopes for new offensive coordinator Luke Getsy. His system is predicated on the wide-zone scheme. While that offense can also be difficult to learn, it’s a system with a clear identity. Every player will know what their job is. Getsy will teach them every detail and demand perfect execution. Whether he’ll achieve that goal remains to be seen, but he at least has his priorities in the proper order.
Nagy just never understood the flow of the game. He’d get a couple good plays n then switch to something totally different n mess up the rhythm the offense was building with some dumb substitutions. He was always trying to be a galaxy brained coach when it was obvious he wasnt
the guy should or never been coach of the year. he couldn’t even beat the eagles with weak cornerbacks at home, in a home play off game. All he had to do was call pass plays down the sidelines. he waited until the 4th qtr to call those plays. then he blames it on a kicker. he should of been nimrod of the year for beating a lot of bad teams and losing to a weak nfc east team in the playoffs. And he let wims and the other dummies get away with that many penalties! pace should of not… Read more »
KISS: Keep It Simple Stupid.
Your offense doesn’t need to be snazzy. It needs to be consistent.
Thank you Erik Lambert, and thank you even more to Big Tom Thayer! I have been screaming this since mid 2019! Nagy admitted to over-complication in his self-scout at the end of that season, and came back in 2020 and 2021 overcomplicating again! “Trick ’em run game”, “nothing but gadget plays”, “coaching incompetence”, and “soft” were all descriptions of the Bears through those last two seasons and you can only pin that on the HC! Nagy himself, after his receivers had said that Green Bay’s halftime adjustments gave them trouble late in the game, asked the press, “What adjustments? I… Read more »
Thayer is 100% correct on all accounts and statements ! i have played at all levels from grade school to college , and in every instance the guys who come in and force you to perfection are the best at making an offense and thus team win ! Nagy via his owns ways never had a chance ! Let’s hope Getsy is maniacal about perfection !