Getty Chicago Bears Head Coach Matt Nagy. (Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images)
Chicago Bears head coach Matt Nagy spoke to the media at Halas Hall Wednesday, and he said he would still be the team’s play-caller Sunday when the Bears host the Chargers. Many fans and analysts were clamoring for a change in play-calling duties in Chicago after the Bears’ offense was a stagnant mess for the sixth game in a row this season.
The Bears have the 30th ranked offense in the NFL, and their running game has been abysmal. They are averaging 3.4 yards per carry. Lamar Jackson has more rushing yards than the Bears do as a team.
Whether Nagy is actually going to start running the ball more–which he keeps insisting he knows must happen–remains to be seen. But if things do not change in a major way on offense Sunday for the Bears, particularly with the running game, this will be an alarming issue moving forward. Surely Nagy wants what’s best for the team, and he did note that if he did hand off play-calling duties, he wouldn’t tell the media. Sunday’s game against the Chargers will be very telling.
Nagy has also been somewhat inconsistent with his criticisms of his players. He has singled out multiple players both in his postgame responses and in press conferences throughout the week.
He has called out certain guys when they’ve made mistakes, or when they aren’t playing up to their full potential–but he always seems to go easier on Mitchell Trubisky, at least publicly. The one time he got in Trubisky’s face in a game was well-documented, and it seemed to light a fire under the quarterback. But in public, during press conferences, Nagy will give certainly pointed criticism, but he generally stays positive about Trubisky, even after horrid performances.
“I thought the footwork was just OK,” he said after Trubisky’s dud against the Saints. Nagy will acknowledge here and there that Trubisky should have made a throw–but more common than that is his singling out of badly run routes by his wide receivers.
Matt Nagy on Mitch Trubisky: “The No. 1 thing I came away with… the footwork. I thought the footwork was just OK.”
After the Bears lost to the Saints on Sunday, Nagy called out wide receiver Anthony Miller for running the wrong route on a bad Trubisky overthrow. Trubisky also said that Miller was supposed to go outside instead of inside, but several players and analysts, including Matt Forte and Laurence Holmes, noted that passing routes in practice are rarely the exact same in a game.
Forte said that Miller made good adjustments on his route based on where the safety was and that it was up to Trubisky to make that throw. Trubisky wasn’t close on it. Others agreed:
@ArifHasanNFL Trubisky’s struggles have not just been on throws to the left.
It was said in the postgame press conference that Anthony Miller was supposed to go outside instead of inside on his route, but that does not change the fact that Trubisky overthrew this. #Bears #Bears100
@AdamHoge Miller used his savvy to take an inside release to beat the corner and then faded to the outside to give his QB a window bc in real games routes arent run like its drawn on paper. the timing wasnt impacted at all. Mitch has to make that throw.
Anthony Miller liked the above tweet, which could be a sign of a tiny fissure in this group, particularly when Nagy has made it clear he wants his players to be relatively quiet on social media. Regardless of their social media behavior, it’s telling that many analysts are also defending Miller, who has proven to have definite potential after leading the team in touchdowns as a rookie last season.
Laurence Holmes On 670 the Score said the following about Anthony Miller:
“The quarterback and the head coach threw him under the bus when it comes to his route running… If he’s that bad and this has been a thing with him since last year, why is he active? Why is he playing? If you can’t trust him to do what he supposed to do, why is he playing?”
On Mitchell Trubisky, Holmes said the following: “In situations where he can throw to the man, he throws to the spot.” Holmes said Trubisky fails to see the receiver and make adjustments during game. Nagy should at least call his quarterback out in the same ways he called out Miller–and more recently, Roquan Smith.
Nagy Says Roquan Smith Can ‘Play Better’
On Wednesday, when Matt Nagy was asked whether second-year linebacker Roquan Smith looks like the player they hoped he would when they drafted him, his answer was pretty telling. He said Smith “can definitely play better, and he knows that.”
Nagy on #Bears ILB Roquan Smith: “He can definitely play better, and he knows that.”
He also noted he thought Smith would pick it up this weekend, but it’s interesting that Nagy would publicly call Smith out after the linebacker missed time for still yet unknown personal reasons. Smith’s play has not been the same since he missed the Bears Week 4 game against the Vikings.
Nagy also said Wednesday that Trubisky’s confidence wasn’t at its highest, so it makes sense that he’s not piling public criticism on top of everything else his struggling quarterback is dealing with.
But Nagy has to be critical of Trubisky at some point, because it’s Trubisky’s job to make easy throws. It’s his job to correctly go through his progressions without constantly staring his desired target down. It’s his job to execute his RPOs. And right now, Trubisky’s not doing any of those things, much less doing them well.
Nagy’s criticism of his quarterback doesn’t have to be public, but he cannot call out some players without calling out his quarterback, as well.