March 28, 2024


Analysis

Hub Arkush: What happens in next two weeks will dictate Bears future

Chicago Bears head coach Matt Nagy, right, talks with general manager Ryan Pace training camp in Bourbonnais before the 2019 season.

If you’re a Chicago Bear and you feel like the sky is falling, you just might be right.

Clearly some kind of extreme weight landed on you Sunday in Tampa.

You returned home with an outbreak of COVID-19 within the organization and found out Monday morning your boss, head coach Matt Nagy, has tested positive and will now try to lead from some unknown location.

Insert here your own image of the wizard behind the curtain in Oz.

On Wednesday, rumors broke that Khalil Mack, your best player who we’ve all watched play on one foot the past three weeks, could be heading for a minimum three-week respite on the injured list.

With the return dates of defensive stars Robert Quinn (reserve/Covid-19 list) and Akiem Hicks (groin) still unknown, it could be enough to stick a fork in the season.

Rookie QB Justin Fields, the future of the franchise, is continuing to produce in the passing game with near record futility, and he took a step backward in Tampa.

Part of his issues have to be that while reinforcements may be on the way, he is down to his third-string right tackle to protect him. And that guy was so bad Sunday he couldn’t last a full half while Fields was getting mauled.

The job security of your general manager and head coach has been a topic of raucous debate, and as the floodwaters continue to rise, the noise only grows louder. How are you supposed to block it out?

If their jobs are at stake, so is each and every one of yours.

With all of that, at 3-4, you are in the thick of the chase for the last two wildcard spots and have actually been more impressive overall than most of the teams in the pack with you. But you could also see the bottom fall out with one more performance like last Sunday – or really any kind of losses the next two weeks.

Next you can add the trade deadline arriving at 3 p.m. Tuesday. Will you be buyers or sellers? Have new buddies or a new home? Or just left holding the bag?

Sources are telling me the team is on the phone listening but not shopping, willing to move anyone for premium value but not searching for deals.

And if general manager Ryan Pace and Nagy are actually heading for the top of the bubble at the end of the year – there’s no certainty that idea is anything more than noise – just who is deciding what, if anything, happens between now and Tuesday night?

Am I the only one with at least a slight suspicion Nagy’s sudden move from ‘Andy’s our guy’ to ‘the future is now with Justin’ was made with at least some urging? And if it was, shouldn’t it have come with some commitment to a reasonable chance to make it work?

There is literally only one thing we know for sure about these Bears at this moment.

Should they beat the 49ers Sunday at Soldier Field and the Steelers a week from Monday night in Pittsburgh – outcomes not only possible but perhaps even likely if they get enough of their walking wounded back – at 5-4, with multiple quality wins, they would become a favorite to claim the NFC’s sixth or seventh wildcard spot with a reasonable chance to win a playoff game in the right matchup at the right time.

But lose to the Niners and you’re looking for a miracle, lose both and you’re toast.

In all my time covering this football team, there has been no 10-day period I recall that was as critical, volatile and pivotal to the present and long-term future of this organization.

Is it building toward a playoff run and real measurable improvement, a tear down, or future years still stuck in the mud?

Is there anyone in ownership focused on how critical these next two weeks can be? Who is guiding, if not helping, to steer the ship?

Will Pace, Nagy and Fields become casualties or heroes?

If this were Hollywood the tough would get going and the Bears would script their problems away.

But it’s not. It’s the Bears, where it seems everything is a drama and none of us know what’s next.

Hub Arkush

Hub Arkush

Hub Arkush was the Senior Bears Analyst for Shaw Local News Network and ShawLocal.com.