Is Matt Nagy's fate sealed after Bears' sloppy loss to Vikings? | PFT on Yahoo Sports
Mike Florio and Peter King can't see how Matt Nagy will remain as head coach of the Bears but also don't think it's a foregone conclusion.
Video Transcript
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MIKE FLORIO: Time now for "PFT" on Yahoo Sports. Peter King, Mike Florio talking about all the big stories in the National Football League. And even though Matt Nagy has taken the Bears to the playoffs two of his first three years in the NFL, 4 and 10 is the record now. Sloppy loss on Monday Night spirited, chippy by the Bears. Nagy himself drawing an unsportsmanlike conduct foul for using some choice language toward the official. Has his fate now been sealed in Chicago, Peter?
PETER KING: Mike, it seems that way, but I've learned in cases like this to never say never because if you're Matt Nagy, you understand what is going on. You understand when you go to your son's football game, and people see you, and you get booed. The area, the region, everybody is turned against him right now. It'd be very, very hard for the Bears to bring him back.
But, Mike, one of the reasons-- one of the things I've learned in covering the game for a long time is that, especially with ownerships like the McCaskey's, OK, atop the Chicago Bears, fairly leak-proof ownerships in the NFL-- I've learned that don't necessarily write this in pen. I think it's likely that he'll be let go, but I definitely don't think that-- when I think about it, I don't say to myself, it's absolutely, unequivocally done. I think most people do, and it will not surprise me. But I would like to wait and see till the last day of this-- or to the day after the season.
MIKE FLORIO: I think back to the report from four weeks ago from Mark Konkol, who won a Pulitzer a decade ago with the "Chicago Sun-Times," and he reported that the Bears were planning to fire Nagy after the Thanksgiving game against the Lions. And the Bears were very quiet for a few hours after that, which was odd and conspicuous, but they ended up keeping Nagy. It just makes me wonder what's really going on behind the curtain. And the problem is, Peter, from my perspective, there's a degree of dysfunction within the Bears. And the problem with dealing with, from our perspective, analyzing, assessing, trying to predict what a team that has some dysfunction in it will do, you can't account for how the dysfunction is going to factor into what we would think would be rational, reasonable decisions based upon the years we've been covering the sport.
PETER KING: Right. And, look, the other part of it is that-- and, again, I know this is going to sound Pollyanna-ish a little bit, but I would say, overall, when Justin Fields has played, he has not been very impressive. You see sparks. You see signs, but he's not completing 60% of his passes. He's got a minus touchdown-to-interception rate. He's got a low quarterback rating, all those things.
Look, he's a rookie quarterback. I get it. It's going to take time, but I think if he had played a little bit better-- because, remember, Nagy very famously, at the start of the year, said to me, and I'm sure he said it to others too, that I am not playing Justin Fields until he's ready. And this is about 15 years. It's not about two years. And Fields just has come out when he has played-- sometimes when he's forced to play because of injury to Andy Dalton and sometimes just when he has been picked to play, he just has not played very well, and that can't be a good mark in Matt Nagy's column.
MIKE FLORIO: Another important element to consider for the first time ever, teams with coaching vacancies can begin interviewing assistance from other teams starting Monday the 27th of December. So to get there, you have to have a vacancy. When will teams clear the decks? And would it be stunning if the Bears clear the decks this week?
Would it be stunning if they clear them on Sunday night and prepare to catch up to the likes of the Raiders and the Jaguars? The Jaguars fired their coach just after midnight on Thursday, so who knows what's going to happen and when it's going to happen. But, Peter, this new rule could spark dominoes falling all throughout the league as teams who know they're going to fire their coach after the season get started now so they can start interviewing these candidates who are going to be interviewed by others.
PETER KING: Not very fair, but, Mike, that's the law of the land this year.
MIKE FLORIO: Merry Christmas to all those coaches out there who have to worry about the axe that may be falling. We'll see you next time. Merry Christmas to all of you too.
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