Halas Intrigue Bears Report: Tick, tick. Boom?

The Bears’ season has mercifully come to an end. Now fans are waiting for official word that coach Matt Nagy’s tenure at Halas Hall will also end. Read the latest coverage and analysis below.

Matt Nagy’s Bears career was brought to its almost-certain end Sunday by the same franchise-crippling issue he was brought in to fix: the quarterback.

Andy Dalton’s 77.2 passer rating in a who-cares game wasn’t nearly as damning as the way Nagy handled two first-round draft picks: Mitch Trubisky and Justin Fields. The former was a Pro Bowl injury replacement in his first year under Nagy but regressed the next two seasons and is now the Bills’ backup. The latter, drafted No. 11 overall this year, played only 10 games, hampered by injury and illness and a coach who stubbornly insisted on giving Dalton all the training camp reps.

That only harmed Fields, whose teammates had to learn how to play with him in real time – starting in Week 3.

It amounted to coaching malpractice. The potential franchise quarterback was never given a chance to earn the starting job over Dalton. He was so removed from the competition that other starters had to adjust to him when Dalton hurt his knee in Week 2. In between, Nagy wanted to use him as a gadget player.

In a strange bit of revisionist history, Nagy expressed optimism about Fields on Sunday, calling him “a really good franchise quarterback,” after making it clear at the start of the season that he’d rather play the veteran.

The result was an offense that was perennially disappointing and a rookie quarterback who was never able to get his footing. After his encouraging fourth quarter in Pittsburgh on Nov. 8, Fields started and finished only two games.

To the end, Matt Nagy stayed true to himself. As it turned out, that’s what he does best.

After a season-long inquisition of denying reports of his firing as the Bears head coach and a never-ending flurry of raw, pointed questions about his struggling offense and his failing team, Nagy wasn’t about to crack after a 31-17 loss to the Vikings on Sunday put the Bears out of their misery.

With a hint of resignation about his imminent firing Monday after a 6-11 season, Nagy acknowledged the reality of the Bears’ record in his four seasons, but accentuated the positive and pointed toward a bright future with or without him.

“Whatever has happened in my four years here — good and bad — there’s a reason for all of it. There’s a reason why this is happening right now,” Nagy said. “As a leader you’ve got to make sure you stay positive. You’ve got to make sure you lead and you’ve got to use it to make yourself better.

“Regardless of what happens … I promise you I’m gonna do that. I’m going to let this refine me, not define me.”

Due to a massive amount of scar tissue, I’m mentally incapable of telling you what I want in the Bears’ next head coach. However, I can tell you what I don’t want in Matt Nagy’s successor. This is based on four years of him, too many years of Bears ridiculousness, the cumulative effects of listening to that excruciating air-raid siren at Soldier Field and one afternoon of fourth-down lunacy.

So what do the Bears do now? Patrick Finley, Jason Lieser and Mark Potash break down Matt Nagy and Ryan Pace’s future after the season finale. LISTEN HERE.

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