November 28th, 2021 at 9:00am CST by Zachary Links
Matt Nagy‘s job appears to be safe — for now. The Bears are unlikely to fire their head coach before the end of the season, according to NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport (Twitter link).
Rumors of Nagy’s imminent firing were rampant last week, with one report suggesting that he would be dismissed after the Thanksgiving Day game against the Lions. For his part, Nagy says such talk “is not accurate,” though he canceled the Bears’ scheduled meetings Tuesday afternoon. And, as of Tuesday, Nagy said he had yet to speak with owner George McCaskey, team president Ted Phillips, or GM Ryan Pace about his status.
“We all have our own decisions as to how we do things, and I think this whole entire time, for me and for ownership, we’ve had greatcommunication,” said Nagy when asked about the recent lack of clarity from the Bears’ top brass. “[We’re] focused on Detroit. That’s what it is.”
On Wednesday, McCaskey told players and coaches that Nagy would not get a pink slip for Thanksgiving. Still, barring a total 180, it’d be a surprise to see him return in 2022. Indeed, Jason La Canfora of CBS Sports hears that change could be inevitable.
Around this time last year, we were hearing that it was more likely than not that Nagy would be fired at the end of the 2020 campaign. While ownership ultimately elected to give its HC one more chance to right the ship, the Bears’ struggles this season are probably too much for him to overcome.
The good news for Chicago is that many offensive-minded coaches view rookie QB Justin Fields as a quality passer that they can build around. So the club, which is expected to consider popular candidates like Tampa Bay OC Byron Leftwich, New England OC Josh McDaniels, and Buffalo OC Brian Daboll, might be able to land its top target. However, Northwestern HC Pat Fitzgerald, whom the Bears have coveted for some time, remains uninterested in the post.
Meanwhile, although we recently heard that Pace might not be fired at season’s end, La Canfora notes that his status is very much up in the air as well.
The Bears have never fired a coach in-season, and chairman George McCaskey is the latest to offer pushback on a report suggesting such a move was on tap.
In a meeting with players and coaches Wednesday, McCaskey said there is no truth to the report Matt Nagy will be fired after the team’s Thanksgiving Day game in Detroit, Dan Pompei of The Athletic tweets. This comes after a subsequent report indicated Nagy did not convey confidence about his rest-of-season status to the players.
While Nagy is undoubtedly on thin ice and almost certainly will not be back with the Bears next season, franchise precedent and the McCaskey comments point to the team keeping the fourth-year HC beyond Thanksgiving. A loss to the winless Lions, however, may change things for Bears ownership.
Losers of five straight for a second consecutive season, the Bears are 3-7 and again are having extensive issues on offense. They rank 31st in total offense, despite a two-pronged offseason effort to upgrade the quarterback position. Andy Dalton is set to start in place of an injured Justin Fields against the Lions. Among qualified QBs, Fields ranks last in QBR.
Nagy handed off play-calling duties to offensive coordinator Bill Lazor for a second straight season, but the pivot has not been as effective this year. As far as possible interim options, special teams coordinator Chris Tabor has been an NFL staffer since 2008 — including two Bears stints. Ex-Browns HC Mike Pettine is the only other staffer with head coaching experience, though he arrived only this year and serves as a senior defensive assistant alongside first-year DC Sean Desai in Chicago.
The Lions fired their head coach after their Thanksgiving Day game last season. Are the Bears prepared to do the same this year? While Matt Nagy denied a report he will be relieved of his duties after Thursday’s Detroit trip, some interesting details have surfaced regarding the coach’s status.
Nagy canceled the Bears’ scheduled meetings for Tuesday afternoon and did not exactly reveal confidence he would be around much longer, according to Brad Biggs of the Chicago Tribune, and some players are miffed by the lack of direction displayed by the organization this week.
The Bears have lost five straight games for a second consecutive year. While they rallied back to make the playoffs after a six-game skid in 2020, helping Nagy save his job, the outlook is bleaker a year later.
Nagy told media Tuesday he had not met with Bears management this week but informed his players later that day he did, in fact, have a productive meeting with ownership, Biggs adds. Nagy is believed to have met with ownership after making those comments. However, the former Coach of the Year did not address his status with the team, which upset some players due to the uncertainty surrounding this situation. A short-week firing would certainly not be ideal, but word of a potential ouster getting out early does not present a stable picture, either.
Despite addressing their quarterback situation by adding Andy Dalton and Justin Fields, the Bears have regressed again on offense. They will enter Week 12 ranking 31st in total offense and 29th in points — down from 2020’s full-season perches. The 2019 Bears finished 29th in points and yards, injecting concern about their direction after a bounce-back 2018. “Fire Nagy” chants broke out at Soldier Field during Sunday’s loss to the Ravens.
The Bears have leaned against in-season firings, allowing their previous embattled coaches to finish their respective seasons. The franchise has never fired a coach during a season. But Nagy might well be the coach to break this tradition. Nagy has been given more time than the team gave Marc Trestman and John Fox, though the ex-Chiefs OC has led the Bears to two playoff berths — compared to his recent predecessors’ zero — since taking over in 2018.
November 23rd, 2021 at 1:29pm CST by Zachary Links
Earlier today, former Chicago Sun-Times journalist Mark Konkol reported that Thanksgiving will mark Matt Nagy‘s final game as head coach (via Patch.com). For his part, Nagy says “that is not accurate,” (Twitter link via Kevin Fishbain of The Athletic).
“My focus is on these players and Detroit, and that’s it,” Nagy said (via ESPN.com’s Kevin Seifert). “That’s my job as a head coach and a leader, is to do that. These players have been amazing. They’ve been great. You have this quick turnaround after a loss like [Sunday’s to the Ravens], and now here you go. The only thing we can do is focus on the now and do everything we can. Thursday is going to be here quickly.”
Still, Nagy says that he has not received any assurances from owner George McCaskey or GM Ryan Pace this week. Left to fend off the rumors by himself, Nagy claims that he won’t be distracted by the speculation.
“We all have our own decisions as to how we do things, and I think this whole entire time, for me and for ownership, we’ve had great communication..[We’re] focused on Detroit. That’s what it is,” said the head coach.
After dropping five straight, the Bears are 3-7 and en route to a lost season. It’s a sharp drop from Nagy’s first 12-4 season at the helm, or even his back-to-back 8-8 campaigns. Assuming no decision has been made yet, a win on Thursday could help cool down the hot seat. On that note, Nagy also confirmed that the Bears will start Andy Dalton while Justin Fields recovers from his rib injury.
MattNagy won’t be on the sideline tomorrow vs. the 49ers. The Bears announced that their head coach is still quarantining after testing positive for COVID-19 and won’t coach Sunday’s game.
Nagy tested positive for COVID-19 earlier this week, so it’s not a surprise that he remains in COVID protocol. If everything goes as planned, we can assume that Nagy will be ready to go for next weekend’s matchup against the Steelers.
Nagy has spent three-plus seasons in Chicago, but he hasn’t come close to matching the 12 wins he collected during his first season at the helm. Despite a talented roster, the Bears went 8-8 in both 2019 and 2020, and the team currently sits at 3-4 heading into this weekend’s game.
Special teams coordinator ChrisTabor will assume head-coaching duties for tomorrow’s game. Per the team’s release, Tabor was responsible for running practices this past week. He started his NFL coaching career with the Bears back in 2008, and after serving as the Browns special teams coordinator for seven seasons, he joined Nagy’s staff in the same role in 2018.
September 29th, 2021 at 5:06pm CST by Sam Robinson
Andy Dalton returned to practice Wednesday, going through the Bears’ workout in a limited capacity. And Matt Nagy has not changed his depth chart at quarterback.
The player the Bears promised would begin the season as their starter will remain so going forward, once he returns to full strength. Dalton suffered a knee contusion in Chicago’s Week 2 win over Cincinnati.
“In regards to the depth chart with them, Andy is the 1, Justin’s the 2, Nick is the 3,” Nagy said of his Dalton-Justin Fields–Nick Foles depth chart (via ESPN.com’s Field Yates, on Twitter).
Although Dalton’s injury moved Fields into the lineup, he trudged through an abysmal day in Cleveland. The No. 11 overall pick took nine sacks and completed 6 of 20 passes. First-round rookies rarely give jobs back after ascending to staring roles; Mitchell Trubisky moved into Chicago’s starting lineup in Week 5 of his rookie year and made every subsequent start in 2017. Fields’ performance may have opened the door for Dalton to stay in the picture. Fields was also uneven in his debut against the Bengals, following Dalton’s injury.
After suffering a right thumb injury, Fields practiced fully Wednesday. Foles is not on Chicago’s injury report but does not appear to have re-entered the equation for a possible starting role. The trade candidate remains in a third-string position to begin his age-32 season.
Nagy also indicated the Bears have had conversations about their play-calling role, though no decision has been made. Chicago ranks last in total yards and 31st in points through three games. Nagy gave OC Bill Lazor play-calling responsibilities amid a swoon last season, and the Bears — albeit against favorable opposition — made a late-season run to reach the playoffs. Nagy took back the play-calling reins this offseason. Lazor was Dalton’s OC in Cincinnati from 2017-18 and his position coach in 2016.
Teven Jenkins‘ rookie season might have to wait. The second-round left tackle will undergo back surgery later today, according to Bears head coach Matt Nagy.
The “hope is to have Jenkins back this season,” Nagy says, but it doesn’t sound especially promising. Jenkins, the No. 39 overall pick in this year’s draft, was slated to support starters Jason Peters and Lachavious Simmons. Now, he’ll likely have to focus on rehab with an eye on 2022.
The Bears have high hopes for Jenkins. After selecting quarterback Justin Fields in the first round, they packaged No. 52 and a third-round pick to nab the Oklahoma State standout early in the second. And, just a couple of days after drafting Jenkins, the Bears released long-time tackle Charles Leno.
With Jenkins sidelined, the Bears may look to beef up their offensive line in the coming weeks. If they look to the free agent market, the Bears could consider the likes of Mitchell Schwartz, Russell Okung, and Demar Dotson.
We know, we know…it’s probably a bit early to speculate about the job security of NFL head coaches. However, let’s not forget Bum Phillips‘ famous (supposed) quote: “There’s two kinds of coaches, them that’s fired and them that’s gonna be fired.”
Even with the start of the NFL season more than a month away, a handful of head coaches already find themselves on the hot seat. Nowadays, it isn’t all that hard to determine which head coaches are at risk of losing their jobs. You can pretty much remove the 12 first- and second-year coaches, and you can definitely remove the successful, long-term coaches (the likes of Bill Belichick, Sean Payton, etc.).
That leaves about 15 coaches with at least two years of tenure but fewer than eight years of tenure (yes, we chose eight to shoehorn Andy Reid into the “definitively safe” section but not the likes of Mike Zimmer). Have those coaches had successful teams? You can remove them from the list. Have those coaches continually shown improvement? You can probably remove them from the list, too. Have those coaches’ teams disappointed or underwhelmed, especially recently? Ding ding ding…those are the coaches on the hot seat.
As we all know, those on the hot seat either redeem themselves and save their jobs or…ultimately get canned. So, that brings us to today’s question: which head coach will be fired first? We used Bovada’s top-three options below, but we’d like to hear your thoughts in the comments.
Following a 12-4 campaign to begin his coaching career, Nagy found his seat getting a bit warm following a disappointing 8-8 campaign in 2019. The former Chiefs offensive coordinator didn’t do a whole lot to inspire confidence in 2020. The team finished 8-8 for a second-straight season, and the former QB whisperer found his passing offense ranking in the bottom-half of the NFL in most categories.
The Bears finally bailed on Mitchell Trubisky this past offseason, and they added a pair of QBs to replace him: veteran Andy Dalton and first-round pick Justin Fields. With a solid defense that’s in win-now mode, Nagy will have to get something out of one of these signal-callers if he hopes to retain his job. Considering Dalton’s recent play and Fields’ inexperience, things are looking bleak.
It’s easy to put an asterisk on the Bengals’ 2020 campaign following the season-ending injury to Joe Burrow, but there’s no denying that Taylor’s staff has now collected an ugly 6-25-1 record through two seasons. There’s really nowhere to go but up for the head coach, but even if the Bengals improve their record in 2021, the team would still have to pass the smell test. Specifically, we should expect the offensive guru to guide Burrow and the rest of the offense to at least an above-average performance, and it’d be encouraging if the defense was able to show some progress after finishing as one of the worst units in the league in 2020.
As we saw with Marvin Lewis, the Bengals organization values continuity. It’s hard to envision the team not giving Taylor at least another full season, but if the team is unable to show any improvement over 2020, then the 38-year-old could find himself without a job.
There are a number of things working against Fangio and his future in Denver. For starters, he hasn’t done a whole lot during his two seasons at the helm, leading the team to a 12-20 record. Making it worse, the team took a clear step back in 2020, and with a questionable roster on paper, it’s hard to envision the Broncos getting a whole lot better in 2021.
Next, GM George Paton was only recently hired, so he surely won’t be feeling pressure throughout the 2021 season. However, a disappointing campaign could change things. In that hypothetical, you can bet the executive would be looking to right the ship immediately, and that would probably start with the head coach.
The final factor is the uncertain status of Broncos ownership. If the team is ultimately sold, the new owners would presumably be looking to clean house, at least from an on-field perspective. That means Fangio would surely be handed his walking papers, even if the team did show some progress in 2021.
Now, Bears head coach Matt Nagy has more or less confirmed that report publicly in a recent appearance on Cris Collinsworth’s podcast (Twitter video link). When asked by Collinsworth if there was any possible scenario where rookie Justin Fields is under center come Week 1, Nagy said “No.” Fields, of course, was just drafted 11th overall by Chicago.
“I mean Andy is our starter. And again, I can’t predict anything, you know how it goes. I mean there’s so many things that could happen between today and that Week 1. But Andy is our starter and Justin is our number two, and we’re going to stick to this plan,” he continued.
It sounds like the team wants to do right by Dalton, as he was publicly anointed as the starter after signing a one-year, $10MM deal back in March.
It’s worth keeping in mind that only four quarterbacks chosen in Round 1 since 2011 — when that year’s CBA changed first-rounders’ earnings and timelines — did not become a primary starter in Year 1. They were Patrick Mahomes, Jake Locker (2011), Johnny Manziel (2014) and Paxton Lynch (2016).
Both Nagy and GM Ryan Pace are on very thin ice. If the Bears struggle this season, they’ll almost certainly both be fired. As such, it’s hard to believe they’ll have too much patience. Unless Dalton comes in and immediately catches fire and leads the team to victories, it’s hard to see them waiting more than a few weeks to pull the trigger.
If Dalton is anything other than excellent, the pressure from fans and the media will be intense to unleash Fields, the former Ohio State star. We should learn a lot more about the situation in training camp and the preseason.
While the Bears may have promisedAndy Dalton the starting gig, they’re still in the market for a rookie quarterback. Tony Pauline of Pro Football Network (on Twitter) reports that Chicago is looking to move up in the draft in pursuit of one of the top quarterback prospects.
“One of the teams I’m told is a realistic possibility to trade up is the Chicago Bears, who want to trade up to get a QB,” Pauline said during a recent episode of his podcast.
Pauline specifically points to the Cowboys at No. 10 as a potential trade partner, which would take Chicago out of the running for (presumably) Trevor Lawrence, Zach Wilson, and at least one of Justin Fields, Mac Jones, and Trey Lance. The Bears are currently armed with the No. 20 pick in the first round, along with a second- and third-round pick.
While the Bears may be set atop their depth chart with Dalton and Nick Foles, there have been continued whispers that they could look to the draft (including the first round) for another quarterback. Head coach MattNagy even seemed to acknowledge that the organization has been eyeing a handful of rookies QBs during a recent meeting with reporters.
“As everybody knows, we’ve been to a few pro days with some of these quarterbacks and it definitely helps, but there is only so many of those you can do and see. What’s fair is every other team is doing the same thing. Ryan and I are super excited about going through that evaluation process together and how we do it. It’s a challenge, but we look forward to it. There are a lot of good quarterbacks in this draft class.”
