Why the Bears need to start their next head coaching search right now
Charles Robinson is joined by Yahoo's Joey Gulino to reflect on the Chicago Bears' Monday night loss to the Minnesota Vikings. With Bears head coach Matt Nagy seeming like an obvious lame duck in his current position, Charles argues that the Bears should look to fire him as soon as possible to get a leg up in the search for the right coach to pair with young QB Justin Fields.
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Video Transcript
CHARLES ROBINSON: The Minnesota Vikings, they beat the Chicago Bears 17-9. I mean, honestly, my only takeaway for this is it's-- Matt Nagy's 100%-- there's just no way that he survives. Obviously we've known that. I think now it's the question of, like, with this new hiring-- interview-- coaching interview rule where the windows now opening. I question whether the Bears shouldn't have just said, you know what, we know this isn't going to work out. Let's go ahead and get ahead of everybody.
JOEY GULINO: Are they costing themselves?
CHARLES ROBINSON: Yeah, I think you are. I think you-- now look-- do things happen? You know, he's sitting in that job. Does that mean that nothing's going on behind the scenes? Of course not. There's, you know, despite all these rules, and the tampering, and this and that. There's all kinds of crazy stuff, you know, you hear that I'm pretty sure is true, but no one can ever prove. You know, there's tarmac interviews. There's-- the jet lands in the private airport. A car pulls up. Someone goes in for a couple of hours on the plane-- comes back off the plane and leaves.
I think they would serve themselves by just going ahead and getting in front of it. Like, let's move. I hate-- I'm not pulling for anybody to lose their job. But at this stage, you could probably even approach Nagy and just be like, look, man. We're let you ride it out. You get paid, whatever. We're going to conduct some interviews. We're going to do our best to keep it quiet. But we're going to take care of it when the season's done, or whatever.
But-- I think the more interesting factor is just, like, who pulls the trigger on the next coach? Is it-- what are you going to do with the general manager situation? There's a lot to work out with the Bears.
JOEY GULINO: Monday night's game, I mean, it was going to be a slog from the jump, you know? Just the way that each team, kind of, profiled, and what they're good at. Or should I say the absence of what they're good at for the most part.
I think with Nagy-- he obviously doesn't have much longer there it doesn't seem like. And-- the thing that's key for me is-- what's the worst thing? You say this all the time, and it's true. Like, what's the worst thing you can do to a rookie quarterback that you're really hyped up about? And it's let him get hit. Let him get beat up. And kind of, let him lose that confidence right off the bat. And thankfully, I don't see that with Justin Fields-- like, his big time throw percentage, his depth of target.
Like, he's got numbers that induce confidence both with you, and you can clearly tell that he has confidence in himself. And he's trying to extend plays. I mean, DJ Wonnum got him a couple of times on Monday night because he was trying to do a little too much. He took some sacks, you know, that he shouldn't-- but you know, he's not afraid. He's trying to make stuff happen.
And so with that still intact, you know, it's-- Nagy hasn't ruined that. And I guess that's the best thing you can say about him at this point. Because there's plenty of opportunity, especially if Aaron Rodgers moves on in the off season, who knows? It seems like there's a window in that division for a guy to pair themselves with Fields. And that's what's important to me. The Bears are obviously out of it. So just keep Justin Fields healthy. Keep him confident. And-- you'll have no shortage of suitors, I wouldn't think.
CHARLES ROBINSON: Yeah he's been resilient. I mean, that's the thing. He's definitely had some bad games this year where you're like, uh-oh. Like, and you talk about the physicality of it. He's taking hits. You know, he's had some really horrible, like, accuracy games. But he always seems to come back either the next game, or two games down the line. And he puts up a performance where you're like, no. OK, he's hanging in.
He seems-- this was the quintessential, like, hey, it's late in the season. He's taking punishment. The coaching situation is jacked up. The roster's jacked up. And yet this guy is coming out and he's still competing. I think-- Fields is going to be fine. But I do think it's very, very key, like you said, finding who's going to grow with him moving forward. And-- I see people bringing up, like, Josh McDaniels. Like, don't just plug Josh McDaniels in with this guy. Like, you need to be creative with this one, and find the exact right fit for him. And don't just default to-- you know, whoever's the name that is out there every single year.