Post by JABF on Jan 11, 2021 22:32:04 GMT -6
This is a good read. Sounds like anything could happen with Phillips/Pace/Nagy. Any/all or none could stay.
This is a great article - I just posted a brief snippet here to whet your appetite :-)
It's worth reading the entire article by following the link.
LINK
Column: As George McCaskey ponders the Chicago Bears’ future, 1 thing is clear: They have no easy way out of this mess
The Bears don’t have a quarterback dilemma. They have a quarterback quandary. And there is no clear solution with them holding the 20th pick in the 2021 draft whether Pace or anyone else is the general manager. The real horror of the playoff outcome — a 21-9 loss to the Saints when the offense failed to convert a third down until its final possession — is they probably would have been better off not making it. The Bears could have lied to themselves about the offensive bump in the final four games of the regular season and found other ways to spin a positive about a .500 season without a wild-card-round playoff appearance. Now their shortcomings again have been put under the microscope in consecutive losses.
It could be the team winds up announcing everyone is returning — and certainly no news from Halas Hall by late Monday night was good news for Pace and Nagy — but who is going to be happy with that? No option is good right now from the standpoint that there is no obvious solution to what they’re going through. They are stuck in the middle without premium draft capital and with a projected salary cap that will be snug. And they don’t have a quarterback in a league in which it’s impossible to win consistently without one.
If they fire everyone, they’re back to rebuilding, and despite some struggles on defense in the second half of the season, the team still finished eighth in Football Outsiders’ rankings. With a defense in that position, the Bears need to be able to plug and play with the hope of making a jump next season. It’s a riddle for McCaskey because it wasn’t long ago — September 2018 — when the Bears announced to the NFL they were in position to vie for a championship by making the blockbuster trade for outside linebacker Khalil Mack. A little more than two years later, do you tear that down or take one more shot at making it work? Do you give up on that endeavor as soon as you’re back to being whole in terms of draft picks after paying the bill to the Raiders for Mack?
What should not be lost in all this is the reality that McCaskey holds Pace in high regard. It’s hard to fire people on a human level, and that was underscored Monday when Philadelphia Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie announced the firing of coach Doug Pederson three years after he led that franchise to its first Super Bowl victory.
Nagy is under contract for two more seasons, and the Bears traditionally don’t fire coaches with that much time remaining. There hasn’t been a meltdown at Halas Hall, as there was with Marc Trestman when the team fired him with two years remaining on a contract that was for significantly less money. Nagy is eight games over .500 through three seasons, but his offense — his area of expertise — remains a struggle, and he’s as much to blame for the failure of Nick Foles as is Pace, the man who traded for him.
McCaskey has presided over three general managers and four head coaches in 10 years. Whatever he decides, there are many layers to this. And whoever speaks later this week isn’t going to be able to project with any confidence that there indeed is an easy way out.
Column: As George McCaskey ponders the Chicago Bears’ future, 1 thing is clear: They have no easy way out of this mess
The Bears don’t have a quarterback dilemma. They have a quarterback quandary. And there is no clear solution with them holding the 20th pick in the 2021 draft whether Pace or anyone else is the general manager. The real horror of the playoff outcome — a 21-9 loss to the Saints when the offense failed to convert a third down until its final possession — is they probably would have been better off not making it. The Bears could have lied to themselves about the offensive bump in the final four games of the regular season and found other ways to spin a positive about a .500 season without a wild-card-round playoff appearance. Now their shortcomings again have been put under the microscope in consecutive losses.
It could be the team winds up announcing everyone is returning — and certainly no news from Halas Hall by late Monday night was good news for Pace and Nagy — but who is going to be happy with that? No option is good right now from the standpoint that there is no obvious solution to what they’re going through. They are stuck in the middle without premium draft capital and with a projected salary cap that will be snug. And they don’t have a quarterback in a league in which it’s impossible to win consistently without one.
If they fire everyone, they’re back to rebuilding, and despite some struggles on defense in the second half of the season, the team still finished eighth in Football Outsiders’ rankings. With a defense in that position, the Bears need to be able to plug and play with the hope of making a jump next season. It’s a riddle for McCaskey because it wasn’t long ago — September 2018 — when the Bears announced to the NFL they were in position to vie for a championship by making the blockbuster trade for outside linebacker Khalil Mack. A little more than two years later, do you tear that down or take one more shot at making it work? Do you give up on that endeavor as soon as you’re back to being whole in terms of draft picks after paying the bill to the Raiders for Mack?
What should not be lost in all this is the reality that McCaskey holds Pace in high regard. It’s hard to fire people on a human level, and that was underscored Monday when Philadelphia Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie announced the firing of coach Doug Pederson three years after he led that franchise to its first Super Bowl victory.
Nagy is under contract for two more seasons, and the Bears traditionally don’t fire coaches with that much time remaining. There hasn’t been a meltdown at Halas Hall, as there was with Marc Trestman when the team fired him with two years remaining on a contract that was for significantly less money. Nagy is eight games over .500 through three seasons, but his offense — his area of expertise — remains a struggle, and he’s as much to blame for the failure of Nick Foles as is Pace, the man who traded for him.
McCaskey has presided over three general managers and four head coaches in 10 years. Whatever he decides, there are many layers to this. And whoever speaks later this week isn’t going to be able to project with any confidence that there indeed is an easy way out.
