Chicago Bears: Reviewing the 2018 dream season

Bears hired Nagy and filled their staff well

After a 14-34 record under former head coach John Fox, the Chicago Bears fired him right after the 2017 season. Pace went out and quickly found his man, Matt Nagy. Nagy was the offensive coordinator for the Kansas City Chiefs. He helped quarterback Alex Smith have the best season of his career. Under Nagy, the Chiefs ranked sixth in points scored, fifth in total yards and had the fewest turnovers in the NFL.

Nagy is the author of a high-powered offense. In a pass-happy league, Nagy’s passing system is among the best. Under Fox, the Bears had a putrid offense. In 2017, they ranked 29th in scoring and 30th in total yards. In addition, they ranked dead last in passing yards and 31st in passing touchdowns.

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As I mentioned, the NFL is a pass-first league. Fox, though, refused to move away from his run-heavy offense. As a result, his services were no longer needed.

Under Nagy in 2018, the Chicago Bears ranked 9th in points scored and 14th in passing touchdowns. They ranked 21st in both total yards and passing yards. Remember, however, Rome wasn’t built in a day. There is room for improvement, but they improved across the board in 2018.

Nagy infused some excitement to the Bears. He is a player’s coach and defends his players all the time. He is a young, active coach who interacts well with his team. He celebrates with his team when they win and he refuses to throw his players under the bus when they lose.

Also, he doesn’t back down from a challenge or from criticism. When the Bears played their third preseason game, he sat down nearly all of his key starters. The third game of the preseason is usually the dress rehearsal for a team. The starters play into the third quarter. Nagy felt they had plenty of reps during training camp so he decided to sit his starters.

That decision brought a lot of criticism. In the postgame press conference, Nagy stood at the podium and addressed all of his critics. He defended what he did and didn’t refuse to answer any question. Fox was a mystery to the media. He said very little and what he said didn’t clear anything up. Nagy, though, is transparent. He stood there and went through his reasoning. When his handler tried to end the presser, Nagy waved him off and stayed more time.

During the season, Nagy was true to himself. He used a litany of trick plays and when those plays didn’t work he still stood by his decisions. That is what endears him to the players. There are some coaches who will talk about the players not making plays, but Nagy never did that. He supported his players and if something didn’t work out, he took responsibility.

The Bears did a good job of surrounding Nagy with quality coaches. Mark Helfrich, the offensive coordinator, has the same philosophy as Nagy and the two worked great together. Harry Hiestand did an excellent job as offensive line coach in his second tenure with the Bears.

The most important signing, however, was retaining defensive coordinator Vic Fangio. Fangio turned the defense from an embarrassment to a top-ten unit in 2017. In 2018, he turned it into an elite unit. He may be lost now to the Denver Broncos, but his unit will still be one of the best in the league.