When an era of football for an organization comes to an end under bad circumstances, you can safely assume details of how it fell apart will come out sooner or later. That chicken has finally come home to roost for Matt Nagy, and it’s ugly. Tyler Dunne of Go Long released a two-part column exploring the Chicago Bears’ woes at the quarterback position, with the recent failures of Mitch Trubisky and Justin Fields being critical parts of it. Nagy, of course, played a role in the development of both. Let’s just say the article doesn’t paint him in the best light.
Perhaps his biggest issue was his inability to control his coaching staff. After the successful 2018 season, he hired Brad Childress, hoping he’d help further develop Trubisky. Instead, the veteran coach told Nagy the young quarterback was useless and not worth his time. This is what ultimately started the deterioration of the relationship between coach and quarterback. It gets even worse. Nagy had so little organizational control that even his assistant coaches started beefing with each other.
In-fighting on the coaching staff did not help. After Trubisky missed one throw in a game against the Giants, wide receivers coach Mike Furrey leapt up and down and it pissed off others on staff. Such demonstrative behavior was the norm in practices, too. Deep down, quarterbacks coach Dave Ragone could relate to his quarterback’s struggles. He was one himself. For a period, one source says Furrey and Ragone refused to even speak to each other.
Said this source: “When you’ve got coaches not talking to coaches — forget the players — you can’t win when your organization’s like that.”
Several people had concerns about the Bears’ decision to hire him. While he’d had a great mentor in Andy Reid with Kansas City, he didn’t have much experience. Nagy had only one season under his belt as an offensive coordinator. Frank Reich, who ended up having a solid run in Indianapolis, had four by comparison. Many historical examples exist of assistants getting the head coaching job before they’re ready. They don’t yet have the emotional maturity or commanding presence necessary to hold a building together.
That is the case with Matt Nagy. Things were fine in 2018. It was his first year, and the team was winning. However, the loss to Philadelphia in the playoffs seemed to have spooked him. He started second-guessing everything, making changes where none were needed. With this new information, we now know why the Bears made somewhat surprising changes to their coaching staff in 2020, firing three primary assistants. There is a strong likelihood that those involved were dissenting voices about the team’s status and direction.
For years, people have wondered who to point the finger at for the Bears’ sharp decline after that division title six years ago. Now we know it all centers around the head coach.
