Complete House Cleaning

The Bears have fired both GM Ryan Pace and coach Matt Nagy and will start fresh.

The Bears have decided on the complete house  cleaning logical for so long at Halas Hall.

Both coach Matt Nagy and general manager Ryan Pace have been fired.  

Board chairman George McCaskey will address the situation with a 1 p.m. press conference on Monday. Players met with Nagy Monday morning after the firings.

Nagy's inability to deliver a competitive offense over the final 3 1/2 seasons of his four with the team figured prominently in his demise.

Pace had been the personnel boss since 2015 and in his seven seasons the team had a 48-65 record. Pace was responsible for the trade up to draft Justin Fields and also Mitchell Trubisky, the trade for Khalil Mack and selection of 2015 first-round draft bust Kevin White.

Pace hired Nagy and also hired John Fox, whose time in Chicago was a total failure with a 14-34 record. Pace has been largely absolved of this hire as one others at Halas Hall pushed him into because of Fox' experience. It was the classic case of a young GM needing a guiding hand as a coach, but Fox proved anything but a help.

Before the Bears begin looking for a 17th head coach, they need to hire a GM. And it's also been rumored team board chairman George McCaskey will change the organizational structure and include a head of football operations.

It seems like an awful lot of hiring to take place so quickly for the organization to properly tackle offseason personnel and coaching issues at the Senior Bowl, the combine, free agency and the draft. 

Nagy's team lost nine of its last 12 games in 2021. He leaves Chicago with a record of 34-31, the third Bears coach to be fired with a 34-30 regular-season record. His time in Chicago included two playoff berths and two loses, and one NFC North title.

The failure of Nagy's offense was pervasive and not simply due to an inability to develop a quarterback.

Nagy arrived in Chicago a coach with very little play-calling experience and put himself in the role of play caller. By the 2020 season, he gave up the role to offensive coordinator Bill Lazor, took it back and then gave it up again after three games in 2021.

The Bears averaged 29.8 points a game in Nagy's first nine games, then 19.9 afterward. Averaging 19.9 points a game doesn't win many NFL games.

Nagy coached a team with the best scoring defense in the league, third best overall in 2018, then top-10 defenses in 2019 and 2021. But he couldn't bring the offense in line.

Quarterback Mitchell Trubisky's struggles, the failure of Nick Foles in 2020 as a quarterback who had system experience and possibly even some of the 2-8 record as starter by rookie Justin Fields can be traced back to Nagy.

Pace's first draft pick turned into a total bust as wide receiver Kevin White caught only 25 passes for the team before being cut after the 2018 season. He suffered several injuries, but when healthy did not develop as a player and has kicked around the league the past three seasons as a practice squad player.  

Obvious potential candidates could be Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels, former Eagles coach Doug Pederson, former Vikings coach Leslie Frazier and Buffalo Bills offensive coordinator Brian Daboll. The Bears interveiwed McDaniels when they hired Nagy in 2018.

Among college coaches, two prominent names could pop up. Ohio State coach Ryan Day is one, because of his status as Fields' former coach.

Another is Michigan's Jim Harbaugh. Harbaugh has reportedly exrpessed thoughts about returning to the NFL and would be of interest to the Bears, partly because he was their first-round draft pick in 1987 and played six seasons in Chicago but also because of his success in San Francisco during a four-year period as head coach.

The Denver Broncos on Sunday fired former Bears defensive coordinator Vic Fangio and there could be popular support in Chicago for bringing back a coordinator who built the 2018 Bears defense. Fangio was Harbaugh's defensive coordinator in San Francisco when they were 44-19-1 in four years with three winning seasons and one .500 year. They made the Super Bowl and lost in 2012.

One name who will be mentioned prominently in a GM hunt has to be Rick Spielman, who was reportedly fired by the Vikings. Spielman was with the Bears as pro personnel director from 1997-99 and left for Miami, before going to the Vikings as vice-president of personnel in 2006.

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