NFL Insider: Bears players want Matt Nagy gone originally appeared on NBC Sports Chicago
Well, it’s finally happened. Chicago Bears head coach Matt Nagy has lost the locker room.
According to NFL insider Jordan Schultz, “an overwhelming number of Bears players” want the team to part ways with Nagy.
“He lost some of the locker room last season, but now it’s gone,” one of Schultz’s sources said.
An overwhelming number of #Bears’ players want Matt Nagy gone, league sources say. “He lost some of the locker room last season, but now it’s gone,” one source adds. One key holdup: No HC in the 101-year franchise history has ever been let go during the season.
— Jordan Schultz (@Schultz_Report) November 22, 2021
The defense of Nagy through all the team’s struggles under his tutelage has been his grip of the locker room and the notion that players like him.
Now, it’s worth noting Schultz co-hosts a podcast with Bears wide receiver Allen Robinson. You can either look at that as an indicator of great insight into the thinking of the Bears’ locker room because of that connection.
Or you can be skeptical of it because Robinson has had a tenuous relationship with Nagy and the team. Robinson wanted a contract extension and didn’t get one, then was franchise tagged and wasn’t happy about it. Robinson’s agent has been very public about his frustrations with play calling under Nagy as well.
But it’s not hard to accept this as the reality surrounding Bears’ players. Twice in the past two seasons Nagy has been repeatedly pushed to give up play-calling after the offense struggles.
Nagy’s been criticized for mismanaging the quarterback competition between veteran Andy Dalton and rookie quarterback Justin Fields. Stubbornly digging in his heels that Dalton was the starter, keeping Fields from getting any first team reps during the preseason.
That probably prevented Fields from succeeding when he was finally named the starter early in the season.
There has even been some subtle comments showing some signs of frustration with the offense and play calling, including from Mitch Trubisky last season after losing the starting job to Nick Foles and then being named the starter again after a long losing streak.
Either way, this seems to be the first sign that the wheels are falling off for Nagy and change might be coming at the head coach position.
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