There’s Plenty Enough Blame to Go Around for the Bears Subpar Offensive Roster

Brad Biggs at the Chicago Tribune answers another question:

If the Bears finish below .500, will both Ryan Pace and Matt Nagy lose their jobs? While Nagy’s play calling has been consistently questionable this season and last, it was Pace who saddled him with inconsistent QB play, a porous offensive line, gadget players rather than full-timers. — @ld1306

Ownership evaluates everything at the end of the season, and frustration is running high for fans and everyone inside Halas Hall with the team on a four-game losing streak. We’ll have to see what direction the season takes over the final six games and how the Bears get to their final record. If the offense is flat-lining when the team reaches the finish line, that wouldn’t reflect well on the GM or the coach. But it’s premature to say the Bears are definitely headed in one direction or the other. An evaluation of the football operation takes into consideration the entire scope — the entire season — and the Bears are in a bad stretch right now. We’ll see if they can change their trajectory.

I have a little bit of an issue with the premise of the first part of this question. Pace’s desk is definitely the place where the buck stops when it comes to the roster problems. But putting everything on him may be a bit off base.

I’d bet money that signing those “gadget players” was at Nagy’s instigation. Pace didn’t sign those kinds of players when John Fox was the head coach. It was only Nagy’s obsessive search for mismatches that led to these players being on the roster. Which would be OK except that most of his choices have been proven to be ineffective when used on a regular basis for other teams. But coaches have huge egos and they always feel that they can get more out of players if they are just “used right”. And that’s the kind of thinking that has gotten the franchise to where its at with some of these guys.

You think Nagy said, “No. Bobby Massie can’t do the job and we need a left tackle because Charles Leno doesn’t have what it takes”? Really?

Inconsistent quarterback play? Nagy said, “No, its hopeless with Mitch Trubisky and there are no good free agent options. Draft someone and let me concentrate on developing him rather than wasting my time with Trubisky.” You think that that Pace ignored his objections and pushed Trubisky on him anyway?

You think Nagy told Pace not to sign Nick Foles? Any reasonable fan would know that it had to be exactly the opposite. Foles was the guy Nagy wanted. There can be no doubt about it.

Does Pace deserve his share of the blame here? You bet. He’s at the top of the food chain and he makes the final decisions. Nagy was his guy and if some of the personnel decisions his hand picked head coach suggested weren’t the best, well ultimately that’s Pace’s fault. The final decision on all of this was his.

But let’s not fool ourselves here. Matt Nagy saddled himself with the personnel on this roster every bit as much as Pace did. And if Pace goes down, Nagy should and will go with him. And it won’t be because he couldn’t call plays for men who couldn’t execute them. It will be because he helped pick them every step of the way.