This team might need to be blown up and started from scratch. This is my reactionary opinion as the season essentially comes to an end tonight.
The Chicago Bears struggles start from the top and work their way down. General Manager Ryan Pace has made some great moves. I love his aggressive approach most the time, but it seems his decision to draft Mitchell Trubisky might be the one move that costs him his job. Hiring Matt Nagy might be the second biggest mistake.
After watching Matt Nagy win Coach of the Year last season and Ryan Pace win Executive of the Year, how has the team fallen off this drastically? As of now, I am going to let Ryan Pace keep his job as my anger starts to waiver every so slightly as time passes. This is a difficult decision as if Ryan Pace is allowed to stay, then so is Matt Nagy.
This year, I am struggling not to blame Matt Nagy for the majority of this team’s struggles. The players are lacking discipline and are not executing the way they should on game day. Mitchell Trubisky has been one of the biggest disappointments this year, but he is not the only one. Matt Nagy’s play-calling has been maddening most games. This one was no different.
After finding success in many areas, Nagy still decides to make some poor decisions in critical times. How about on a third and one play and the call is an option? I do not believe I saw one I Formation tonight. Those are the downs and distances when I Formation should always be used. How about benching Trubisky with a little over three minutes left? Was Trubisky really hurt?
The play calling issues have been a thing all season, but what about the kicking issues? Those have been masked by inconsistent and poor quarterback play. The kicking issues have been overshadowed by the lack of running game and the offensive line issues. Not to mention, why did it take so long to flip Cody Whitehair and James Daniels back to their 2018 positions? There have been so many of these little issues I could go on for the rest of the regular season.
Here we are tonight and Mitchell Trubisky actually plays a decent game. His stat line does not tell the entire story. I will be going through and counting how many drops took place that were on the receivers and not on poor ball placement. This is just a guess, but it felt like the team had around 10 drops tonight. Add in those yards and completions and Trubisky’s stat line would look good.
Unfortunately, we cannot grade Trubisky on just this game. We are 11 weeks into the season and Trubisky has not played well. More importantly, he has been very inconsistent and erratic at times. With Trubisky’s contract situation, fans should know he is not going anywhere either this offseason. So are we just stuck with this bunch for next year too?
The answer is yes. However, I expect some drastic changes. Also, if I am Ryan Pace, I would be taking away Nagy’s play-calling ability. Nagy has not lost this locker room as Marc Trestman did during his tenure. Players are not pointing fingers, in-fighting does not seem to be an issue and guys are sticking up for one another. Nagy is a good coach. However, I think his play-calling days need to come to a complete halt.
The other change is that Mitchell Trubisky will have competition next season. If Ryan Pace fails to address that portion then he should be fired immediately before the 2020 regular season starts. This means you better buckle up Bears fans. We could be in for a very long, bumpy ride between now and the end of the Pace, Nagy and Trubisky tenure.