Friends, Romans, Countrymen…. Here we go again.
The Bears head into Thanksgiving with a record of 3-7, on a five game losing streak, and staring dead in the face of a winless Lions team who has come close the in their last two and are ready to pounce. This has the makings of something embarrassing, but ultimately the answers to our prayers: a Lions win equals the firing of Matt Nagy. But will that be enough? Absolutely and positively not. We need a clean sweep of a new coach, a new general manager, a new president, and most importantly new ownership. The best thing the McCaskey’s could do for their beloved Bears is to set them free.
Let’s Start With Ryan Pace
Pace has been the general manager in Chicago since the cleaning of the front office in 2015. He chose veteran head coach and Super Bowl champion John Fox as the head coach of the team. After a 3-13 season, the Bears were given the third selection in the 2017 draft. After signing veteran Mike Glennon to a massive and lucrative deal, he traded away high value picks to move up one spot, swapping with the San Francisco 49ers, in order to take Mitchell Trubisky second overall. The 49ers were on defensive end Nick Bosa the entire time and were not even considering a quarterback. Also, that draft also included quarterbacks Deshaun Watson and Patrick Mahomes.
The Bears were again not good that season. But after Trubisky took over for Glennon mid-season, the team saw glimpses of a future. At the end of the season, the Bears fired Fox and looked for an offensive mind to develop the new young quarterback. They (Pace) chose Kansas City Chiefs offensive coordinator Matthew Nagy.
The “Offensive Guru,” Matt Nagy
Nagy was brought in to be an the guy that changed the course of offensive football in Chicago. We were told he was on genius level. He came over from an Andy Reid offense led by Alex Smith with Patrick Mahomes waiting in the shadows. Nagy said he wanted to develop Mitchell Trubisky (which was a lie) and could compliment the born again Monsters of the Midway on defense.
Year one was incredible. The Bears went 12-4, won the NFC North, and lost a heartbreaker in the divisional round (no need to talk about it). This was the height of Bears fandom post-1985. The defense was back and we thought we found our quarterback. 2019 was Super Bowl or bust expectations in Chicago. However, there was writing on the wall that we thought were just a rookie head coach learning we just did not think hard enough about. In 2019, Nagy chose himself and his playbook over Trubisky’s skill sets, and was able to blame the lack of offensive production on the young quarterback. In 2020, the Bears signed veteran Nick Foles, someone Nagy was familiar with. When he struggled to perform in the Nagy offense, it was clear to just about everyone the problem was not the quarterback. I say just about everyone, because it was not apparent to Pace and the rest of the Bears brass.
After opting out of Trubisky, the Bears again signed a veteran quarterback, Andy Dalton, and traded up in the draft to pick Justin Fields. Have you heard this before? Shocking to no one except the people we need it to be, starting Dalton on principle rather than performance doomed the 2021 Bears from the start, inside and out.
But How Bad Is It?
2019, 2020, and now 2021 have all seen historically bad offense, wasted defensive talent, losing streaks reaching at least four games, and head coaching incompetency beyond understanding. We are living in the lowest of lows in franchise history. In his four seasons, Nagy is 0-4 after the bye week. In those four games, the Bears lost two three backup quarterbacks, an unfathomable stat. If you ask anyone outside the organization, their response would be the same: it’s just the Bears.
When Will It End?
Realistically? Never. But here’s how it can end – sell the freaking team.
The Halas/McCaskey family founded the Bears, practically the NFL. They’ve held onto the team all this time. This historic franchise has seven championships, and only one of them is a Super Bowl. They are consistently inconsistent ever since the death of Papa Bear George Halas. Why is that? Because nobody else in the family/ownership knows how to run a football organization. And they haven’t had to, because merchandise is being sold and butts are in the seats no matter the score, the record, or the competency of football. They are the Chicago Bears, the founding franchise. Bears fans are so dumb – and I can say that because I am in Tier 1, as dumb as it gets. I live and die with this stupid team.
So who’s to blame? It absolutely starts at the top. George McCaskey has his friend Ted Phillips as team president, someone with zero football knowledge. Red flag? Yep. Then you have Pace, who is as lost as Phillips, trying to distance himself from Nagy, who he handpicked himself, going against every claim of “collaboration” we were told was there all offseason.
Nagy’s favorite excuse after games is having to “find the why.” I found it a long time ago and all he had to do was look in the mirror. That’s why we’re losing.
The reports now are that he was informed Thursday will be his final game as head coach of the Bears. He obviously denied this, but it would be just like the McCaskey’s to do it in a manor so profound and dumb like this.
If things are to change, it’s not just Nagy who needs the axe. It doesn’t stop with him, Pace, or Phillips. The Bears need to axe themselves and sell the team. They need to set us free.
Restart Sports Network 