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| In three seasons, Matt Nagy sports a respectable 28-20 record with two playoff appearances. However, his team's have greatly under-performed the last two seasons, heating his seat up to dangerous levels |
Success starts at the top, right? Let's start our 2020 season in review by taking a look back at how those in charge performed during the Bears 8-8 campaign.
Ryan Pace
Pace seemingly had a mixed bag of success in 2020. On the positive side, he absolutely nailed the 2020 draft class, which at the very least does give some young talent the Bears can build off of. Previous draft picks like Roquan Smith and David Montgomery also blossomed as young stars. Pace also continued to make the right moves defensively, retaining under the radar players like Roy Robertson-Harris and bringing in the right veterans to fill key holes (Barkevious Mingo, Mario Edwards, Tashaun Gibson). However, his biggest off-season acquisition (Robert Quinn--more on him in a future post) has been met with a lot of backlash, especially as Bears fans watched Leonard Floyd tear it up in LA (10.5 sacks) . He also made the mistake letting both Nick Kwiatkowski and Kevin Pierre-Louis walk while retaining an aging Danny Trevathan. Low cost options on the offensive side of the ball (Ted Ginn, Nick Foles, Germain Ifedi) mostly flopped, contributing to some of the offensive struggles in 2020.
It wasn't Pace's best off-season in 2020, however he was able to find some incredible value in the draft, thus buoying his grade. The emergence of UDFAs on the OL (Mustipher and Bars) helps as well. Grade: B-
Matt Nagy
I'm going to be blunt:
Nothing about Matt Nagy's performance in 2020 was good. Schematically, this team had no identity offensively. He continued to make awful personnel decisions that hurt the team (Rashad Coward over Alex Bars/Sam Mustipher, benching Mitch Trubisky for Nick Foles, refusing to give Cole Kmet snaps until 2/3 of the way through the season, misusing Jimmy Graham and David Montgomery, an unhealthy obsession with Cordarrelle Patterson and Ryan Nall at RB and not giving Artavis Pierce a chance, continually inactivating Riley Ridley in favor of less talented WRs, a la Javon Wims, and many more).
Nagy was brought in to Chicago to be an "offensive guru" and to take Mitch Trubisky and this offense to the next level. However, he has done the exact opposite in his three seasons. He has refused to call a scheme to put his young QB in a position to succeed, and he fails to consistently utilize the talent around the QB that he has been given to him (Montgomery, Mooney, Kmet, etc.). His ego continues to stand in the way of sustained success (refusing to give up play calling for most of the season, and then meddling in the offense the least two games of the season). His hand picked QB (Foles), who was supposed to be the savior of this offense, absolutely flopped. His lack of situational awareness and killer instinct has cost the Bears victories on multiple occasions (see Chargers loss in 2019 and Lions loss in 2020).
I'm not holding back. Grade: F
Bill Lazor
It's pretty clear that Mark Helfrich was a Nagy scapegoat after the 2019 season. However, I will give some credit to Bill Lazor as a new hire at OC. In the few games where he was able to control the offense, the Bears seemed to click, albeit against subpar opponents. That being said, Lazor displayed a willingness to play to his players' strengths (a quality Nagy lacks), and most importantly, he finally made David Montgomery the focal point of the offense.
I'm not going to overreact to a few games against subpar competition, but I was pleasantly surprised by the late season offensive performances under Lazor's direction. Grade B
Chuck Pagano
Another coach I'm not holding back on:
Pagano has been almost as awful as Matt Nagy these last two season's. Fortunately for him, the talent he was given defensively was enough to hide his faults until late in 2020. For a franchise that prides itself on tough, mean defense, I have not seen a defensive coordinator this soft in a LONG time. I noted continually during the 2019 season that the Bears defense was under-performing, and it was in direct relation to a lack of aggressiveness. Sack and turnover numbers have been down drastically the last two seasons, and on too many occasions, the Bears defense gave up long 3rd down conversions and long drives when they most needed stops. Pagano was so afraid of his defense making mistakes, he opted to sit in a shell with a "bend don't break" approach instead of letting the dogs loose. Regressions across the board from top defensive talent (most notably Eddie Jackson who was being forced to play out of position, thus limiting his big play abilities) and a complete misuse of key players (like Khalil Mack and Robert Quinn being consistently used in pass coverage instead of attacking the QB) doomed this talented unit.
The offense has been crucified for their performance the last two seasons, but the defense has to share a lot of the blame as well. Pagano was a major detriment to this unit and its personnel. His retirement is a blessing. Grade D+
Chris Tabor
I'm torn on Chris Tabor. On one hand, there is some definite positives on special teams for the Bears. Cairo Santos may have finally solved the revolving door the Bears have had at kicker. He wasn't just serviceable, he was an asset. Additionally, Cordarrelle Patterson continued to be a top kick returner in the NFL. However, there was still a lot to be desired in other aspects. Punt coverage and punt returns were of most concern. The Bears finished 24th in punt net average and 22nd in return average. Now some of the return struggles can be attributed to missing Tarik Cohen, but good special teams coaches find a way to adjust.
I feel as though I (and Bears fans) may have been spoiled by the Dave Toub days. Tabor has been decent, but I still want to see more out of this unit. Grade B
Honorable Mention: Juan Castillo
Juan Castillo was one of the bigger names in a new position across the NFL this season. He was brought in to try and help a fledgling OL unit that needed help. Early season returns looked promising, but as competition stiffened and the unit lost it's best player (James Daniels), the OL became a major problem area once more. However, a mid-season shuffling of the IOL allowed for a couple of Castillo favorites (UDFAs out of ND, Alex Bars and Sam Mustipher) to finally get their shot, and the results were strong.
Due to this emergence, the IOL of the Bears looks to be in good shape moving forward. Castillo has seemingly put this unit headed in the right direction, and with some improvements in personnel at the tackle positions, could have the Bears OL as an overall strength next season. Grade B+
Up next on the Bears 2020 season in review: The QBs
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