There will be much to do with the Chicago Bears this season under head coach Matt Nagy. Currently listed as the betting favorite to be the first NFL coach fired, Nagy will be under much scrutiny unless he can turn this Bears team around.
But can he? Is his job salvageable? How much longer can he make it as the Bears head coach?
Setting the stage: Matt Nagy hired on January 8, 2018
After an illustrious Arena Football League career, Nagy quickly hit the NFL coaching ranks in 2008 as a coaching intern under former teammate Brett Veach in Philadelphia. In 2009, he was again invited back as an intern and famously practiced for a day after an injury to backup QB Kevin Kolb saw the Eagles in need of a quarterback.
After interning for two seasons with the Eagles, Nagy was offered a full-time role as an assistant under Andy Reid and Doug Pederson. The trio followed each other from Philadelphia to Kansas City in 2013. Reid became the Chiefs’ new head coach, with Pederson and Nagy as his offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach, respectively. When Pederson left to take the vacant Philadelphia job in 2016, Nagy was promoted to co-offensive coordinator.
In 2017, Nagy became the lone offensive coordinator, but he didn’t call plays until the final five games of the season. Under his tutelage for those last five outings, the Chiefs went 4-1. Following the 2017 season, Reid gave his full blessing for Nagy to be hired by the Bears after they interviewed him.
Reid even called Nagy the “best head coaching candidate he’s ever had” — and he’s had plenty. As a result, Nagy was announced as the head coach of the Bears on January 8, one day after interviewing for the position.
He became the franchise’s 16th head coach in team history.
How’d the Chicago Bears get to where they are now?
Now three years and some change into the Nagy tenure, the Bears are left with more questions than answers. The Bears won the NFC North in his first season, but they were famously bounced from the playoffs following the “Double Doink” kick.
Since going 12-4 that season, the Bears have posted back-to-back 8-8 finishes. They’ve had plenty of success marred by equal amounts of failure, including multiple-game losing streaks and positional controversies.
Entering the year with questions aplenty, no position was more up in the air than Chicago’s quarterback quandary. After a failed Mitchell Trubisky tenure that Nagy inherited, all eyes were on the signing of Andy Dalton followed by the selection of Justin Fields. Three weeks into the season, the situation has gotten even murkier.
Fields was utterly disappointing in his first start last week, while Dalton looked serviceable before his injury. The team won their Week 2 outing with Dalton getting the start and Fields doing what he could to maintain the lead. Week 3, however, was a different story.
The Bears hardly looked like the offensive juggernaut that Nagy had previously shown the ability to build. They were sacked more times than they completed passes. They ran the ball just 12 times for 46 yards. And Nagy finds himself back on the hot seat.
What are the chances Nagy finishes the year?
If the season were to end right now, the chances of Nagy returning to the sidelines in 2022 would be slim. Despite Nagy being a favorite amongst his players and a great morale booster, producing on-field success will always trump personal feelings.
There have been no public statements on Nagy — regarding his job security or otherwise — from Bears GM Ryan Pace or the club’s ownership group. A once-promising career trajectory has taken an ultimate turn for despair. It seems that nothing short of a playoff berth and subsequent playoff victory can save Nagy’s job.
That won’t happen, of course, unless the Bears win some games. They can start that with a victory over the winless Detroit Lions on Sunday.