BYEWEEK: Desicions

    The Bears hit their by week with an even 5-5 record and seemingly no solution to improve their offense which would result in the very familiar result of a wasted year of good defensive play and no playoff games. Still there are 6 games to be played to see if some experiments work or in the worst case just to see where this team sits for the 2021 season. So, at this point who do you blame for this result? What needs to happen to win the confidence back of the team and fan base? And if it stays the same or gets worse at the end of the season, does he stay or go? The three usual suspects that damaged the growth of the team are in no particular order GM, HC and QB.

   Mitchell Trubisky had an unspectacular but normal rookie year in 2017 where he messed up in various occasions like usually every rookie does, then he goes and makes the pro bowl his next year, the year after that has a bad season filled with injuries and bad decision making leading to declining stats. This year shows more of the same and desperation gets him benched. You can see the guy has physical traits, he is agile enough, above average arm strength, can make touch passes, as a player he looks to be accepted by hes teammates, coaches and personnel. His problem is not easy, he is inconsistent, but knowing why is the hard part to explain. One thing is for sure, he is been coached or asked to play like a pocket passer, he hasn't been able to be a good one yet and might not be for the Chicago Bears. My problem with Trubisky is that he makes bad decisions seemingly by not watching the field properly pre and pos snap. Trubisky was a 1 year starter where he showed his skills that are not questioned, the doubts were on his mental skills to play pro football, is he failing because he doesn't have it or is he not being coached properly?

   Matt Nagy got his first HC position with the Bears in 2018, in part because he accepted to coach Trubisky and what he has tried to do so far is to mold th QB to his game scheme which has not worked since 2019. In 2018 the Bears looked like they were having fun on the field and showed Nagy as a creative offensive play caller, this did not progress, with a subpar 2019 and a very bad offense this year. Nagy brought almost a new group of coordinators and coaches to turn thing around but hasn't worked and is getting worse with a very poor offensive line group. He passed play calling duties to his offensive coordinator this last game and didn't go well. So, did Nagy do a bad job coaching Trubisky or is the QB not good enough? Can Nagy rebound back to 2018 with a new QB or is he still too young a HC that needs more experience?

   Ryan Pace was given the GM position in 2015 as a young talent to give the Chicago Bears organization a more fresh perspective, his biggest decision was picking Trubisky as his 2017 first round draft pick and is the pick haunting him the most, he hasn't made a big boom on any draft year but has been good with his picks especially in the middle rounds of the draft to find some very skilled players. He has brought some key FA players compared to the years before him specially bringing in Akiem Hicks and has strengthened the depth chart and special teams every year. His move to trade for Khalil Mack was huge and would have paid dividends if it wasn't for the lack of offensive progress. His knocks have been the decision of letting Robbie Gould go, missing in first rounders Kevin White because of constant injury and Leonard Floyd because of lack of sack production, extending the contracts of average players on important positions in Charles Leno Jr. and Bobbie Massie, his decision to wait and see if he extends his best WR Allen Robinson,  but nothing more gut punching that missing better QB talent when picking Trubisky over more favored Deshaun Watson and Patrick Mahomes who nobody expected he would play the way he is but still was considered a high skilled player, Pace decided to go with the less experienced wild card. Add the choice of Nagy to be his next HC and both have combined to create disaster. Has Pace done enough to get another shot to bring a new QB/HC? 

  The problem is that all of them are new to their positions and could be seen as going through their learning curve, but if the higher up is flunking then it's obvious that it will domino to the one below him, all of them could get better with time. With this said, I believe that Nagy has more of the blame to the present state of the Bears than the other two. Pace might have brought them together but i believe he get more the benefit of the doubt on not knowing this would happen and his hits might be more impactful than his misses. Trubisky as I mentioned has a good skill set but his inconsistency is killing his chances and I believe he could do better with a better scheme and coaching (and Oline). Nagy is still green and hasnt showed he can adjust, to get rid of coaches and get 10 TEs to the team to find the one he need to run his scheme correctly and still blame the QBs bad play is a bit overboard. Sadly the easier move is to get another QB and see if the result of you big guys above can make things work this time around so Trubisky need these opportunities to make the Bears organization think twice about letting him go or sell himself high to another team this coming offseason and in Chicago there is no other better way to do it by beating the Green Bay Packers, although I don't believe he will have a chance without Akiem Hicks but he can still win personally by playing good football.