Hub Arkush: The buck stops with Matt Nagy but how much have his coaching hires helped?

It is ironic that the greatest fault cited repeatedly by the ‘Fire Matt Nagy’ camp is his failure to develop and ignite the Bears offense when in reality, should he be let go, it will be more than anything due to his focus on building a next-gen attack at the expense of concentrating on becoming the best head coach he could possibly be.

Game management has been an issue from the jump, particularly over most of his first 3 ½ seasons while he stubbornly insisted on burying his head in his play sheet rather than focusing on managing the entire team.

Strategy, split-second decisions and play-calling all suffered as a result.

And what about the most critical part of a head coach’s job if he is going to succeed, the coaching staff he puts together?

General manager Ryan Pace provides the players, but it’s up to Nagy to hand pick their teachers.

His first hire was his best, convincing Vic Fangio to stay as his defensive coordinator after John Fox was let go as head coach.

He also made a good hire in Chuck Pagano when Fangio moved on after 2018 to coach the Broncos.

Pagano takes some heat for a dropoff on defense, but that’s more about him not being Fangio, injuries and trying to carry an offense that couldn’t lift its own weight.

Chris Tabor arrived with Nagy in 2018 and has been one of the better and more respected special teams coordinators in the league.

From there, though, things get a bit sketchy.

Mark Helfrich as offensive coordinator and Brad Childress as a senior offensive assistant were deemed misses when they were jettisoned after two seasons.

In fairness to them, it is unclear how much room Nagy ever gave them to do their jobs.

Harry Hiestand remains one of the best offensive line coaches in the game, and got the most out of mediocre talent in 2018, but then was scapegoated after 2019 because of the lack of front-line talent he was given and, according to some sources, a conflicting style with Nagy.

Dave Ragone was a holdover from Fox’s coaching staff and well thought of enough in league circles that he was hired away from the Bears after last season to be the offensive coordinator in Atlanta. But following the 2019 season in Chicago, Ragone was kicked sideways to passing game coordinator so Nagy could hire John DeFilippo to coach Mitch Trubisky and now Justin Fields.

Space doesn’t allow a full listing of coaches under Nagy, but those have been most of the key players. There is also something very interesting about replacements hired last season.

Current offensive coordinator Bill Lazor, offensive line coach Juan Castillo and tight ends coach Clancy Barone (hired in 2020 to replace Kevin Gilbride) are all veteran coaches who were out of the NFL in 2019.

That doesn’t make them bad coaches, but it does raise the question why no team wanted them the year before they arrived?

Fangio’s assistants – defensive line coach Jay Rodgers, outside linebackers coach Brandon Staley and defensive backs coach Ed Donatell – all moved on. Donatell is now Fangio’s defensive coordinator in Denver, and Staley is the head coach of the Los Angeles Chargers.

After Pagano decided to retire prior to this season, Nagy stayed in house for another Fangio holdover, Sean Desai, to run his defense.

With only two years of experience as a position coach before getting the top defensive job, Desai added defensive line coach Chris Rumph with one year working in the NFL, defensive line coach Bill Shuey, who had never been more than an assistant position coach in the league, and inside linebackers coach Bill McGovern, who was coaching in college last year.

It is unfair to judge Desai off less than one full season, particularly with the injuries to Khalil Mack, Akiem Hicks, Eddie Jackson, Roquan Smith, Danny Trevathan and others, and the woeful offense that’s handicapped him.

But is fair to wonder how much the significant lack of coaching experience on that side of the ball has hurt the defense.

Every coach Nagy has hired have a few things in common: commitment, loyalty and they all appear to be good people you wish nothing but the best for.

But have they been the best men for the job?

The results suggest perhaps not.