Matt Nagy has a 28-20 record with the Bears over three years, with two playoff appearancesGETTY IMAGES
The Bears yesterday made it official that they are retaining both GM Ryan Pace and coach Matt Nagy for the '21 season, but a survey of local columnists finds the decision to be less than enthusiastically endorsed. NBC SPORTS CHICAGO's JJ Stankevitz asked if the Bears "really want to win a Super Bowl" or if team Chair George McCaskey just wants "to be surrounded by people ... who he likes." Maintaining the status quo in '21 "will put the Bears farther from winning the franchise’s second Lombardi Trophy." Stankevitz: "The Bears, in deciding the most significant organizational change they needed to make after a disappointing 2020 season was allowing the defensive coordinator to retire, will slide further into mediocrity and irrelevancy" (NBCSPORTSCHICAGO.com, 1/13). In Chicago, Barry Rozner writes yesterday’s press conference involving McCaskey, Pace, Nagy and Bears President & CEO Ted Phillips “was truly extraordinary, even by the Bears' legendary and comical standards.” The four “spoke for 90 minutes and said virtually nothing.” It was the “same double-talk, refusal to answer questions and filibuster that you've heard before, with a very few notable exceptions” (Chicago DAILY HERALD, 1/14).
SAY THAT AGAIN?! In Chicago, Rick Morrissey writes it was the “words that accompanied Wednesday’s news that were so galling.” McCaskey and Phillips said that Pace and Nagy are keeping their jobs “because they collaborate so well” and because the team “handled COVID-19 so well.” Morrissey: “These four men have mistaken a good team culture for a good team. They’ve mistaken a strong response to the pandemic for success. They’ve mistaken a $100 million practice facility remodeling for progress” (CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, 1/14). SHAW MEDIA's Sean Hammond wrote that fans “who thought Phillips' job might be in jeopardy were in for a rude awakening.” McCaskey called the leadership Phillips displayed during the pandemic "extraordinary." Additionally, Phillips “was a ‘steady hand’ for McCaskey as he went through the postseason evaluation process” (SHAW MEDIA, 1/13). In Chicago, Brad Biggs writes the Bears' fan base “has been out for blood since things deteriorated early in the 2019 season, and calls for change only amplified as the team stumbled to the finish line this season.” The gap between the top two seeds in the NFC and the Bears “is about as distant as reality from ... Phillips after he touted the team’s culture.” Biggs: “To be fair, it’s hard to imagine fans would have viewed anything the Bears brass said as a win” (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, 1/14).
