When the Chicago Bears shocked the NFL world by trading up nine spots to select Ohio State quarterback Justin Fields with the 11th overall pick, the entire football world applauded Chicago for such a great move. The lack of a consistent starting quarterback had been the biggest elephant on the Bears’ backs ever since trading up to draft Mitch Trubisky second overall in 2017. Despite having a walking meme at quarterback over the past four years, Nagy has excelled as Da Bears’ head coach — leading the Bears to the playoffs in two of three seasons and their first division title in eight years.
SO, WHY ON EARTH IS HE ON THE HOT SEAT?!?!?!?!?!
Apparently, Nagy has the third-best odds to be the first coach fired in the upcoming NFL season.
Trailing only Dallas’s Mike McCarthy and Denver’s Vic Fangio. I don’t think Fangio should be fired either. He’s gotten incredibly unlucky with injuries and quarterback play, but he hasn’t been close to the playoffs recently, so I understand his placement on this list slightly more. But Nagy?! Why? What does anyone have on this guy?
If coaches could win the NFL MVP award, Nagy could’ve been a finalist in 2018. For a first-year coach in his first head coaching gig to put together a season like the 2018 Bears had was incredible. Despite declining production from Jordan Howard, Allen Robinson missing a quarter of the season, and a wide receiving corps that featured Anthony Miller as the team’s number two, Nagy went 12-4 and sent both Mitch Trubisky and Tarik Cohen to the Pro Bowl. Huh? How can you blame that guy for the last two years? It’s not his fault Khalil Mack has slightly regressed. It’s not Nagy’s fault that the team’s No. 2 receiver was Darnell Mooney last year (even though I think he has potential).
Nagy has done so many great things during his coaching career with the Bears. He hasn’t been perfect. He doesn’t run the ball nearly as much as he probably should — sort of turning David Montgomery into a pass-catcher early in his career rather than a runner — but Nagy started to ramp up the ground game late last season and because of it, Montgomery was one of the best backs in the league down the final stretch of the season. Nagy learns throughout the season and adapts, and he’s a good coach because of it.
The biggest problem most people seem to have with Nagy is his inability to develop Trubisky. That’s just foolish. Sometimes you just gotta take a step back and realize that some players will never live up to their expectations. You think Nagy wasn’t realizing all the mistakes Trubisky was making? No shot. You remember when he straight up told Trubisky to “shut the f**k up!” during the Rams game in 2019? Nagy looks fed up with his signal-caller in that clip.
Before coming to Chicago, Nagy was known for his ability to work with quarterbacks. As the quarterbacks coach/offensive coordinator for Kansas City from 2013 to 2017, Nagy helped Alex Smith earn three trips to the Pro Bowl. Smith was even considered an MVP candidate for most of the 2017 season. This is ALEX SMITH we’re talking about here. So, if Nagy could do something like that with Alex Smith, the fact that he struggled to develop Mitch Trubisky should speak volumes about Trubisky, not Nagy.
Nagy is a once-in-a-lifetime coach who year-in, year-out has been able to lead his team above expectations. To put him on the hot seat before even seeing him get an opportunity with Justin Fields, seems awfully quick given what he’s been able to do in his three seasons with Chicago. The 2018 Coach of the Year just got his quarterback of the future, and he might not even get a chance to coach him in a regular season game. That would be the biggest tragedy of the upcoming NFL season. Don’t let it happen!
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