Nagy: Fields is #1 starting QB going forward

[HisRoyalSweetness]

Stayed home to study with his dog. How can anyone not love and help but to be impressed with this kid.

He's so smart he realises he'll get more help from his dog while studying tape than from his head coach.

[mmmc_35]

Yes I worded that poorly. It was more a stream of consciousness then a thought process.

I am more confident with lazor calling plays. Lazor last year showed the ability to adapt the offense to the players. Importantly he has some rythm and logic to his play calling.

[Mikefive]

Its easy to love Fields' performance last Sunday. I did. But it was against the 0-4 Lions who spent the first half beating themselves. Now we head into a brutal stretch of opponents where nobody is anything like the Lions. Now without David Montgomery, currently the arguably best player on offense.

I really don't think Nagy was pressured to make the move. I think he was enthralled by the 20+ yard throws he saw in the Lions game, which was clearly better than what Dalton has done and changed his mind on "the plan". Nevermind that it was against the defensively challenged, winless Lions.

I guess we'll see how this all works out against real and quality NFL teams in the games to come.

Despite his performance against the sad sack Lions, I stand by my position that Fields would be better off not playing now. I hope I'm wrong.

It sure looks to me like Nagy has really put himself in an even more horrifiying position if Fields can't sustain his level of play going forward--which he likely won't. But Nagy has now backed himself into a corner to play JF1 no matter what now. It's entirely possible that he'll regret this decision and look even more foolish down the road a few weeks.

[The Grizzly One]

Translation: Ryan Pace and George McCaskey told Nagy, “After what we saw last Sunday, if you have any hope of keeping your job, Fields starts with Lazor calling plays.”

^This

[The Grizzly One]

Or... they could have looked at everything in totality and simply changed their mind.

I don't understand why that even when the Bears unexpectedly do what we want...they are still incompetent. It's exhausting.

You know what's exhausting WAB? Watching your HC/wannabe OC play caller continue to NOT put our players in situations that give them the best opportunity to succeed. So blatantly that everyone in the World can some how see the train wreck except for him. So forgive me if I don't pivot, give credit, and heap praise on Nagy for all of the sudden doing the right thing. I give the players, the coaches, and everyone in Halas Hall the credit for confronting Nagy and saying enough is enough. Now if Nagy wants to change, become just the HC, manage the team, and let the coordinators do their jobs, then I'll start to come back around.

Did you say trainwreck?

I agree BWN.

I've hated Nagy since mid season his second year. I wasn't even much of a fan his rookie year. At CBFans I started calling him "Razzle-Dazzle" even then.

[G08]

That was mentioned on the Hoge and Jahns podcast as well. I think that the stats were (roughly) he took only handful of snaps under center against the Browns but over 50% of his snaps were under center against the Lions. I'd have to re-listen to get the exact count through.

Here was something that they mentioned that I found interesting;

When you're under center you don't have to take your eyes off the field, when the ball is snapped, you can watch which way the secondary is rotating, and who may be coming on a blitz, etc. If you're in the shotgun, you have to take your eyes off the field for a couple of seconds to take the snap. That difference can mean everything in the NFL, where DC's are dialing up much more complex and exotic coverages and blitz packages.

You have to remember as well that when you are doing play-action, you are turning your back to the defense so you are going seconds without seeing what is going on at all.

[G08]

You know what's exhausting WAB? Watching your HC/wannabe OC play caller continue to NOT put our players in situations that give them the best opportunity to succeed. So blatantly that everyone in the World can some how see the train wreck except for him. So forgive me if I don't pivot, give credit, and heap praise on Nagy for all of the sudden doing the right thing. I give the players, the coaches, and everyone in Halas Hall the credit for confronting Nagy and saying enough is enough. Now if Nagy wants to change, become just the HC, manage the team, and let the coordinators do their jobs, then I'll start to come back around.

Did you say trainwreck?

I agree BWN.

I've hated Nagy since mid season his second year. I wasn't even much of a fan his rookie year. At CBFans I started calling him "Razzle-Dazzle" even then.

Nagy was starting to piss me off this season more than ever, but he's earned back a level of my respect for handing playcalling back to Bill Lazor and naming Justin Fields the starter from here on out.

Now, if the offense seemingly goes back to dogshit AND it feels like Nagy has taken back playcalling (for whatever reason), then I might be calling for his head.

[wulfy]

Good news. Nagy knows if he is keeping his job it’s because the arrow is pointing up on JF1.

[malk]

Did you say trainwreck?

I agree BWN.

I've hated Nagy since mid season his second year. I wasn't even much of a fan his rookie year. At CBFans I started calling him "Razzle-Dazzle" even then.

Nagy was starting to piss me off this season more than ever, but he's earned back a level of my respect for handing playcalling back to Bill Lazor and naming Justin Fields the starter from here on out.

Now, if the offense seemingly goes back to dogshit AND it feels like Nagy has taken back playcalling (for whatever reason), then I might be calling for his head.

This has to be the line imo. It's fair enough to be dubious about Nagy getting the itch to call plays again but there are enough games left to see if he's really internalised the benefits of him giving up playcalling. If that's the case and we have a winning season, or otherwise meaningfully promising one with Fields showing signs of development, ring me up for for an extension. Canning a guy with zero losing seasons for a shot into the unknown... again. That's a yikes from me.

[dplank]

We kinda did that with Lovie malk. I supported it at the time, but I regret my position now in retrospect - I was wrong. And we’ve suffered through garbage since.

For me Nagy has hit a reset button. I wanted him fired last offseason and up until yesterday. If he was going to continue his failed experiment as a play caller he had to go, in spite of the fact that he’s a good leader and has two playoff appearances in three seasons. Now that he’s not calling plays and focusing on HC duties, I evaluate him differently.

An ideal scenario in my view would be that we scratch and claw our way to a 10-7 season with Fields showing improvement and flashing his big play potential, and he gets a playoff start to top it off. If this happens, yea I’d support extending Nagy. Something I couldn’t fathom just a week ago.

[Bears Whiskey Nut]

We kinda did that with Lovie malk. I supported it at the time, but I regret my position now in retrospect - I was wrong. And we’ve suffered through garbage since.

For me Nagy has hit a reset button. I wanted him fired last offseason and up until yesterday. If he was going to continue his failed experiment as a play caller he had to go, in spite of the fact that he’s a good leader and has two playoff appearances in three seasons. Now that he’s not calling plays and focusing on HC duties, I evaluate him differently.

An ideal scenario in my view would be that we scratch and claw our way to a 10-7 season with Fields showing improvement and flashing his big play potential, and he gets a playoff start to top it off. If this happens, yea I’d support extending Nagy. Something I couldn’t fathom just a week ago.

If the light went on for Nagy, and he realized he can be 200% more effective as JUST the head coach. If he makes more decisions like the one that forced the Lions into a wasted challenge, and we go 9-8 or 10-7, and there is significant growth from the offense under Lazor (remember we have one of the toughest schedules in the NFL this year). I'd support extending him three years. I have said over and over, I am tired of the burn it all down mentality. If we have to go through three years of frustration and pain to get to a GM/HC/QB that are long term answers and provide consistency at those positions. Then I'm in.

[circlecitybear]

Like the decisions no matter who made them. I am in a wait and see mode. Still have questions about Lazer. Why was he out of football and what is the connection with him and Nagy? Hopefully he has learned and can scheme his offense to the players we have. When I see some tight ends get used I believe he has control over what players he wants to use and the game plan. Going to be tough down this stretch, especially without Monty and an injured O-line. Win or lose, show me improvement.

[HurricaneBear]

We kinda did that with Lovie malk. I supported it at the time, but I regret my position now in retrospect - I was wrong. And we’ve suffered through garbage since.

I supported at the time and still think it was the correct decision. This franchise may have never won a Super Bowl but would not have imploded totally if they had hired the right guy, Bruce Arians. That was as easy a layup as you get and Emery fucked it up. Arians was the only one of those candidates who could have come in and possibly kept the Lovie guys from completely rebelling like they did. Lovie's time was up and it was quiet clear. Trestman was just the wrong choice in so many ways.

As for Nagy.....I am not ready to hop back aboard the Nagy bandwagon that I literally just jumped off of. But him seemingly giving up play calling and announcing Fields has helped heal some wounds. As has been said numerous times, if he can just focus on managing the entire team and being a Head Coach he could be the guy. But he NEEDS to stay out of his own way. We've seen him loosen the reigns before only to grab them back so i'm not ready to give him a full reset....yet.

[Bears Whiskey Nut]

We kinda did that with Lovie malk. I supported it at the time, but I regret my position now in retrospect - I was wrong. And we’ve suffered through garbage since.

I supported at the time and still think it was the correct decision. This franchise may have never won a Super Bowl but would not have imploded totally if they had hired the right guy, Bruce Arians. That was as easy a layup as you get and Emery fucked it up. Arians was the only one of those candidates who could have come in and possibly kept the Lovie guys from completely rebelling like they did. Lovie's time was up and it was quiet clear. Trestman was just the wrong choice in so many ways.

As for Nagy.....I am not ready to hop back aboard the Nagy bandwagon that I literally just jumped off of. But him seemingly giving up play calling and announcing Fields has helped heal some wounds. As has been said numerous times, if he can just focus on managing the entire team and being a Head Coach he could be the guy. But he NEEDS to stay out of his own way. We've seen him loosen the reigns before only to grab them back so i'm not ready to give him a full reset....yet.

Agreed. However there is something in his language and demeanor that seemed different this time. It's almost a sense of resignation from the idea of play calling and game planning. After his "me, me, me" session in that presser someone finally got to him. Whether it was George McCaskey or Nagy's wife. Who cares. Someone sat him down who's opinion he really respects. Because his language on Tuesday was totally different, and his perspective was new.

[dave99]

I think that even more important than the actual performance against the Lions was how he bounced back from the Cleveland game and his ability to learn and profit from his mistakes.
Both those traits taken together tell me the Bears have a QB who is mentally tough enough to handle the lowest lows and savvy enough to build on them and turn it into a positive.
You have let a guy like that play, keeping him on the bench would only retard his development.

[HurricaneBear]

I supported at the time and still think it was the correct decision. This franchise may have never won a Super Bowl but would not have imploded totally if they had hired the right guy, Bruce Arians. That was as easy a layup as you get and Emery fucked it up. Arians was the only one of those candidates who could have come in and possibly kept the Lovie guys from completely rebelling like they did. Lovie's time was up and it was quiet clear. Trestman was just the wrong choice in so many ways.

As for Nagy.....I am not ready to hop back aboard the Nagy bandwagon that I literally just jumped off of. But him seemingly giving up play calling and announcing Fields has helped heal some wounds. As has been said numerous times, if he can just focus on managing the entire team and being a Head Coach he could be the guy. But he NEEDS to stay out of his own way. We've seen him loosen the reigns before only to grab them back so i'm not ready to give him a full reset....yet.

Agreed. However there is something in his language and demeanor that seems different this time. It's almost a sense of resignation from the idea of play calling and game planning. After his "me, me, me" session in that presser someone finally got to him. Whether it was George McCaskey or Nagy's wife. Who cares. Someone sat him down who's opinion he really respects. Because his language on Tuesday was totally different, and his perspective was new.

I haven't had a chance to watch his presser yet so I will make sure to watch for that. Based off everything everyone has been saying here I have some hope. But just feel likes hes tricked me too many times before. I want to believe, I always felt he could be a great Head Coach. The guy just can't call a game to save his life. It's kinda amazing how bad at it he is vs how good he is with the locker room/culture/leadership of a group of men type stuff. I hope you are right and he has turned a corner. It's best for all of us if he has.

[HurricaneBear]

I think that even more important than the actual performance against the Lions was how he bounced back from the Cleveland game and his ability to learn and profit from his mistakes.
Both those traits taken together tell me the Bears have a QB who is mentally tough enough to handle the lowest lows and savvy enough to build on them and turn it into a positive.
You have let a guy like that play, keeping him on the bench would only retard his development.

This exactly. He has shown in college, in the preseason, and now the regular season he makes mistakes, studies and learns how to correct them. And he has the right mentality to be a franchise QB. How many rookies would have went out to eat to celebrate winning the starting job with their family? Not Justin. He stayed in to watch more game film because he has to win on Sunday. This is what we have needed for so many years. This kid is going to own Chicago in a short period of time.

[dplank]

Agreed. However there is something in his language and demeanor that seems different this time. It's almost a sense of resignation from the idea of play calling and game planning. After his "me, me, me" session in that presser someone finally got to him. Whether it was George McCaskey or Nagy's wife. Who cares. Someone sat him down who's opinion he really respects. Because his language on Tuesday was totally different, and his perspective was new.

I haven't had a chance to watch his presser yet so I will make sure to watch for that. Based off everything everyone has been saying here I have some hope. But just feel likes hes tricked me too many times before. I want to believe, I always felt he could be a great Head Coach. The guy just can't call a game to save his life. It's kinda amazing how bad at it he is vs how good he is with the locker room/culture/leadership of a group of men type stuff. I hope you are right and he has turned a corner. It's best for all of us if he has.

I know some REALLY smart people, who are so smart they are unable to communicate effectively with us normals. I’m not saying this is Nagy but using it as an analogy. I think Nagy sees things in his own mind that would work beautifully and he’s probably right, but without top talent and near perfect execution it falls apart spectacularly. He knows he was brought here to bring modern, high flying offense to Chicago and he’s just been chasing ghosts trying to deliver in that mission. Perhaps Pace needed to show some leadership also in forcing some of these changes sooner, we aren’t there so it’s all guesswork for us. In any event, like you I’m just happy we’ve gotten here now and hoping for the best!

[wab]

I supported at the time and still think it was the correct decision. This franchise may have never won a Super Bowl but would not have imploded totally if they had hired the right guy, Bruce Arians. That was as easy a layup as you get and Emery fucked it up. Arians was the only one of those candidates who could have come in and possibly kept the Lovie guys from completely rebelling like they did. Lovie's time was up and it was quiet clear. Trestman was just the wrong choice in so many ways.

As for Nagy.....I am not ready to hop back aboard the Nagy bandwagon that I literally just jumped off of. But him seemingly giving up play calling and announcing Fields has helped heal some wounds. As has been said numerous times, if he can just focus on managing the entire team and being a Head Coach he could be the guy. But he NEEDS to stay out of his own way. We've seen him loosen the reigns before only to grab them back so i'm not ready to give him a full reset....yet.

Agreed. However there is something in his language and demeanor that seems different this time. It's almost a sense of resignation from the idea of play calling and game planning. After his "me, me, me" session in that presser someone finally got to him. Whether it was George McCaskey or Nagy's wife. Who cares. Someone sat him down who's opinion he really respects. Because his language on Tuesday was totally different, and his perspective was new.

Yeah, his whole vibe was different. Almost like a weight was lifted from him. It seemed like something in him clicked and he realized he's a better HC than a play caller.

[malk]

We kinda did that with Lovie malk. I supported it at the time, but I regret my position now in retrospect - I was wrong. And we’ve suffered through garbage since.

For me Nagy has hit a reset button. I wanted him fired last offseason and up until yesterday. If he was going to continue his failed experiment as a play caller he had to go, in spite of the fact that he’s a good leader and has two playoff appearances in three seasons. Now that he’s not calling plays and focusing on HC duties, I evaluate him differently.

An ideal scenario in my view would be that we scratch and claw our way to a 10-7 season with Fields showing improvement and flashing his big play potential, and he gets a playoff start to top it off. If this happens, yea I’d support extending Nagy. Something I couldn’t fathom just a week ago.

I think the situation with Lovie was materially different. After 9 years he'd only got us into the top half of the league in yards once, and that was 15th! After making the playoffs twice in his first three years he then got us back only once in the next 7, with that defence. Only 5 of 9 were winning seasons, only 4 with 10+ wins, only 3 made the playoffs and just one 12+ win season. With the defence then needing an overhaul and his reluctance to do it (allegedly at least) it felt like time.

With Nagy he definitely came in to a pretty great position given the defence so the "no losing seasons" thing shouldn't be overplayed... but he hasn't had a losing season and was really inexperienced. Plus there's a lot to like with his apparent leadership etc. If the rest of the season is promising I think you have to hope that he's turned a corner, down to experience, and hope he builds from there. I've got deep reservations about his "system" and the whole three years to learn nonsense but if Fields looks ok this year it would indicate he's learning to dial that back and from next year on, well you'd hope that Fields is around for a long time anyway.

Anyway, I think we agree! Scraping to 10-7 with a playoff appearance is what I'm really hoping for. With the dream scenario being Fields winning a wild card game and then getting the experience of at least two playoff games. Though we're not doing that if we trade Robinson so I'm, as ever, contradicting myself somewhat...

[dplank]

Yea those were all the same reasons why I supported his dismissal at the time. Then Trestman showed up lol...

[Boris13c]

Yea those were all the same reasons why I supported his dismissal at the time. Then Trestman showed up lol...

Trestman replacing Lovie was definitely one of those "be careful what you wish for" moments ... of course we didn't know that at the time, and initial feelings about Trestman were positive ... sure didn't take long for the wheels to fall of though

[Otis Day]

It is way too early for me to change my tune on Nagy. One press conference, one game away from play calling. I don't forgive and forget so quickly. Let me see how the season goes.

[Grizzled]

Nagy (and Pace) both suffer from that "smartest guy in the room' syndrome. Unfortunately, to this point, neither one has really proven they are, they both continually have been shooting themself in the foot. I don't care why Nagy changed his mind on the QB and playcalling, it's done. Now let's see how much Fields grows the rest of the season and how the offense performs.

[o-pus #40 in B major]

I hope Nagy's evolution is genuine. It looks like a big step in the right direction, but I'm not celebrating yet.

[Grizzled]

I'd like to see Fields given the green light to move like Kyler Murray and Russell Wilson to evade the passrush or no one's open. I'm on the fence about designed runs like the Ravens use Lamar Jackson, I think he's just an injury waiting to happen. I don't want to see Fields, though, get in the habit of taking off too soon before Fields has processed the whole field.

[Bears Whiskey Nut]

I'd like to see Fields given the green light to move like Kyler Murray and Russell Wilson to evade the passrush or no one's open. I'm on the fence about designed runs like the Ravens use Lamar Jackson, I think he's just an injury waiting to happen. I don't want to see Fields, though, get in the habit of taking off too soon before Fields has processed the whole field.

Defenses can scheme against designed runs. If your QB has 4.4 speed and is willing to take off at a moments notice for 15 yards, that becomes much, much harder to defend. If JF1 was mostly a run first, shotgun QB in college, I'd more concerned with him not processing the right reads first, but he was the opposite of that at OSU. Fields has also shown a willingness to get the necessary yards and then go down, vs. trying to be a hero and initiating contact.

[dplank]

I'm just going to drop this little nugget right here, but I've been thinking about this for a few weeks now and it because really clarified watching last nights game.

As fans, we (at least I do) tend to over analyze everything. And when we watch pundits/experts, particularly film room folks like TTNL and JT Sullivan, etc...we can fall victim to a lot of pre-biases in our analysis.

Last night, I saw a play that I wanted point out to the board. Russ had a pass rush coming and tried to spin out of it, he scrambled back and to the left but got caught by his foot barely and, as he was going down to the ground tried to throw the ball away. His knee was down so they called a sack, and they really could have called intentional grounding. When they showed the replay, you saw a guy kind of open early but not in Russ's field of vision, and then as he's trying to spin away from the sack you see a WR coming back to him after breaking off his route and he was open but Russ just didn't have the time to get it to him at that point. Had he not gotten tackled barely by the guy swiping at his feet, he'd have had a completion.

I found myself thinking back to JT's video and thinking...you know what? If Fields does that EXACT SAME PLAY in EXACTLY THE SAME WAY with EXACTLY THE SAME RESULT, JT would have said "he needs to be better there, that's a rookie learning curve thing". And then there was the INT in the end zone thrown by Stafford, and I'm thinking OMG if Fields did that they'd kill him for it! Rookie mistake, he's gotta learn how to throw the ball out of bounds there, right?

And so as we go forward with Fields...we all know it'll be up and down, but I just need to say it out loud here that not every mistake that is made is because he's a rookie! Some may be, many won't be. Every QB makes mistakes. Not everything will be perfect and not every mistake will be because "he's a rookie" or "he held the ball too long" or whatever. Russ is one of the best in the game, and he's taken more sacks than any QB since he's been in the league! Both of those things are true at the same time! Fields is a Russ kind of player, let's hope and pray he is as good as Russ is and not nitpick everything he does.

[The Marshall Plan]

@dplank

Right.

JT O’Sullivan is a washed up hack who appeared in like 17 games. He never got a big contract most likely and now he needs money.

Well how does he get that money?

He goes on YouTube and talks like a teenage girl about quarterbacks.

He’s doing it to make a dollar and the more sensational and whoring you are the more you make.

Soon it’ll be OMG JUSTIN FIELDS’ MORNING LOAF WASNT SAUSAGE SHAPED! HES NOT EATING ENOUGH FIBER!

The next time you feel like watching one of his nitpicking videos play a video game or do a workout instead.

[dplank]

I’m not shitting on JT at all tho, I like his videos. I’m just saying everyone is guilty of confirmation bias. And I’m absolutely certain that had Fields thrown that pick in the end zone like Stafford did, that everyone would point to the fact that he’s a rookie as to why that happened. It was a terrible play. That happens to both rookies and vets. You have to take things “on the whole “ and you hope that Fields steadily improves each and every year he plays. The frequency of terrible plays should decrease over time, etc. But pointing out singular instances and drawing broad conclusions is just foolish stuff. A lot of people did that after the Cleveland game and I suspect are still out lurking to shit on Fields again if he has a bad game this week, or next, or whenever. Primarily so they can keep whatever narrative they have in their head - confirmation bias.