Chicago Bears end of year winners and losers

Chicago Bears loser: Matt Nagy

The expectations going into this year for Matt Nagy were heavy due to the fact that it was on him to start the development of Justin Fields. Primed to be the quarterback of the future, Justin Fields was at the hands of Matt Nagy, Bill Lazor, and John DeFilippo in terms of how he would be coached and developed. It is safe to say things did not turn out the way they were supposed to.

As much as fans might not want to admit it, it was not a great rookie year for Justin Fields. He struggled with turnovers and his decision-making needs to improve drastically. These are flaws that are common among rookie quarterbacks and they will hopefully be gone over the next couple of years. What was more evident was the lack of quality coaching, discipline, and scheming over the entire year, and that goes for the entire team.

Again, it all comes back to Nagy, who made some really bad decisions regarding play-calling, personnel management, and when to take risks. He gave up play-calling as he did last year, but not much changed with Bill Lazor taking over. Nagy was unable to put players in a good spot for their skills, and it showed week in and week out. Fans were consistently scratching their heads at Nagy’s decisions and then he would say that he needs to find out the “why.” It was not that hard to see and has all come to an end after Nagy has been let go.

Chicago Bears Winner: Robert Quinn

Another guy who stepped up in a big way was Robert Quinn. After fans were calling for him to be cut or traded following a disappointing first season with Chicago, he answered the call setting the franchise record for the most sacks in a season with 18 on the year. It was one of the most dominant seasons from a Chicago Bear that we have seen in a long time, and hopefully, we get to see him and Khalil Mack back together again next year tearing it up.

Quinn is a winner this year not only for his stats, but his consistent performance every week should warrant a lot of credit, and maybe a few DPOY votes. Robert Quinn showed how one season does not define a player. He put in the effort every play giving up his body and literally crawling at quarterbacks on some plays. The rest of the defense should want to emulate the kind of energy and effort that Quinn gave this year.