Chicago Bears: Is history repeating itself with Matt Nagy?

The Chicago Bears cannot be walking down the same path they took in 2013 and 2014, are they? The team is showing signs of possible implosion right now.

I try to block out my memories of the Marc Trestman era in Chicago. The Chicago Bears brought Trestman in to be their offensive guru after Lovie Smith struggled to produce any semblance of an NFL offense in the 21st century.

Trestman’s offense in 2013 was fast and exciting. The team looked to turn things around in that area, but unfortunately, it was at the same time the defense started to turn the corner negatively. Trestman’s offense was second in the league in points, yet they only won eight games. The team fell short of the playoffs as the Packers won the division with an 8-7-1 record.

This is it though right? The Bears were finally going to become one of the better offenses in the NFL. Fans were excited despite missing the playoffs on where the future of this team could go. As most of you will remember, the 2014 season was nowhere near as good. The team finished 5-11 and last in the NFC North. The offense and the team imploded. They fell to 23rd in total points scored that year.

To make matters worse, the 2014 Chicago Bears started out 3-3 that season, just as they have in 2019. I know, but they were 3-3 in 2018 and finished 12-4 to win the division. The problem is, this Chicago Bears offense has not been getting it going similar to things in 2014. This year has a different feel to it from last season.

In fact, the Bears scored more points per game over the first six games in 2014 (143) than they have during that same span in 2019 (112). As much as it pains me to think that Matt Nagy could be the second coming of Marc Trestman, too many similarities exist.

Dan Wiederer of the Chicago Tribune had this to report on Twitter about Matt Nagy.

Yikes. During Trestman’s reign here in Chicago, he quickly lost the locker room. Players on both sides of the ball, but mostly the defensive side, were quick to turn on him. Remember, most of the defensive players were very loyal to Lovie Smith and did not appreciate the team letting him go after a 10-6 season in 2012.

Could something similar be happening here now? Honestly, I do not believe any of them are that loyal to John Fox where this is the case this season. Some could be loyal to Vic Fangio, but Fangio chose to leave and Coach Nagy was already in place as the head coach with Fangio still here in 2018. So this part does not quite add up, but could Nagy still be losing his team’s faith?

A players-only meeting took place recently and Mitchell Trubisky said everything was being kept in-house. Could the people speculating the meeting was the defense bashing the offensive players be wrong? Were all the players actually bashing Nagy and the coaching staff? Is the team starting to crack?

Personally, I do not believe this to be the case. The players loved the culture of this team last year. This was one of the main reasons why Ha Ha Clinton-Dix chose to come to Chicago. Losing is difficult and having to answer questions over and over again by the media is a pain. That said I do applaud how Mitchell Trubisky takes it on the chin and others would be wise to follow suit.

Not to mention, Dan Weirder goes on to say in his thread on Twitter than Khalil Mack handled the media similarly in 2018 even when things were going well. We have to make sure not to read too much into it, but we also need to be aware of the situation.

Although I do not believe it, the similarities between the way things have gone down during the Matt Nagy era does seem somewhat similar to the Trestman one. Defensive minded coach is removed for an offensive-minded coach. Offensive “genius” is brought in to fix things. What looks to be a great first year takes place. Then things start to go horribly bad in years two.

Let us hope that things get turned around quickly. I think Matt Nagy is here to stay despite some of the hot takes going around by certain national media people. However, if things do follow the history of the Trestman era we could be in for a rough two months.