Greatest Bears turnaround coach ever: Da Coach? Lovie? Nagy? You make the call

Share

Coaching changes are made expressly for purposes of effecting a turnaround, a reversal of failing fortunes. Sometimes they work, most of the time they don’t. The Bears bear (pun intended) witness to that.

George Halas to Jim Dooley? Not so good. Dooley to Abe Gibron? Mmm, nope. Mike Ditka to Dave Wannstedt? Didn’t happen. Wannstedt to Dick Jauron? No better. Lovie Smith to Marc Trestman? Catastrophe. Trestman to John Fox? Some things better, some worse.

Wannstedt had the Bears back in the once-perennial postseason in his year two, where they won a road playoff game; but it was for only one season. Same with Armstrong from Jack Pardee, who each reached postseasons in their second and third years, respectively, but never repeated.

No, in the near-century of Bears football, three coaching changes stand above the others measured in terms not only of win totals, but also championships and franchise-altering makeovers of talent, culture and beyond. Which rates as the most dramatic and far reaching lies partly in the eyes of the beholders, partly in how outcomes are measured:

1982       Neill Armstrong to Mike Ditka

First-year change: 6-10 in 1981 to 3-6 in strike-shortened ’82, then 8-8, 10-6, 15-1.

Franchise impact: Reached NFC Championship game ’84; won Super Bowl XX ’85; reached NFC Championship game ’88.

The process: In the 20 years since the ’63 NFL championship, the Bears slid downward, to the point where Ditka wrote a job-application letter to George Halas, who hired his former tight end.

And the culture was in for an epic change. Ditka bluntly laid out his plan in his first players meeting: "The good news is we'll get to the Super Bowl in three years. The bad news is that half of you guys won't be here to see it."

Excepting the abbreviated ’82 season, within Ditka’s first three full seasons the Bears had that Super Bowl.

*      *     *

2004         Dick Jauron to Lovie Smith

First year change: Slip from 7-9 in ’03 to 5-11 in ’04, then 11-5, 13-3.

Franchise impact: Won NFC North ’05; reached Super Bowl ’06.

The process: Aside from a playoff blip in ’01 (when the 13-3 Bears won the division and a bye, then lost at home in the divisional round to the visiting Philadelphia Eagles), the Bears were a woeful 46-82 since their last previous playoff appearance (’94). Smith completely overhauled the entire defensive scheme and mindset, worked through a Grossman-Krenzel-Hutchinson-Quinn quarterback clown car his first year, then earned a first-round bye in ’05 with largely with fill-in QB Kyle Orton.

“That defense was aggressive,” linebacker Brian Urlacher recalled. “When we played, it was ‘run through your gap,’ solo gaps, get downhill. That’s why Lance [Briggs] and I had so many tackles for losses. We were aggressive and when we played Cover-2, we were just solid. We knew what we were doing, everyone knew their jobs, and we just didn’t screw up.”

A year later, Smith’s third, the Bears were in the Super Bowl.

*      *     *

2018         John Fox to Matt Nagy

First-year change: From 5-11 in ’17 to 12-4.

Franchise impact: Won NFC North, one game short of first-round bye.

The process: Reeling from two down-spiral years under Trestman followed by three under Fox, GM Ryan Pace made his second coaching hire. The culture change was immediate and palpable. Fox was dead man walking in ’17 after the draft plan for Mitchell Trubisky was withheld from him until the morning-of, Fox knew it and players sensed it, and the results bore it out.

“I know a lot of guys, including myself, didn't want to see Fox go,” said cornerback Prince Amukamara. “I felt Fox was great. But this is a phrase that you hear a lot: ‘It's the nature of the business.’

“But yeah, it was very emotional. Everyone knows that every year, no matter if you win the Super Bowl or if you go 0-16, that you're not going to be with the same team that you started with the year before.”

Nagy inherited a top-10 defense and its architect (Vic Fangio) and set about the task of making changes to the Bears offense on the magnitude of those Lovie Smith once made to the offense. He accelerated the development of Trubisky, benefitted from the addition of a franchise pass rusher (Khalil Mack) and an all-new receiver group, and installed a mood that maximized what already was in place.

“I think we had a lot of things in stock already, right?” said defensive lineman Akiem Hicks. “We had a bunch of stuff in the back room. And when Nagy came in he brought a lot of it to the forefront and he brought in some new items and we’ve been playing well together. We just jelled well with the guys that came in and I think that made a little difference.”

*     *     *

Analysis

Ditka, Smith and Nagy all reshaped the personality and character of their teams. All three oversaw rosters with just the right screws loose: Ditka’s bunch had their “Super Bowl Shuffle.” Nagy might want to take up break-dancing for his “Club Dub” appearances. Smith’s crew had Briggs, Charles Tillman and others holding their hilarious “Freestyle Walking” competitions before practices.

All started with quarterbacks-in-process. Ditka was given a rookie Jim McMahon; Smith a second-year Grossman, Nagy a second-year Trubisky. Ditka got his Hall of Fame edge rusher (Richard Dent) in year two; Smith inherited Urlacher and received Tommie Harris in ’04, while Pace gave Nagy an early Christmas (Mack) a week before opening day.

Smith built from a foundation of defense, Nagy from offense, Ditka from a combination of the NFL’s greatest defense and an offense that still had Walter Payton rushing for 1,500-plus yards per season.

Ditka won a Super Bowl, in the Golden Age of the NFC (Parcells’ Giants, Gibbs’ Redskins, Walsh’s 49ers). Smith reached one and had the misfortune to find Peyton Manning waiting there for him. Nagy is ahead of both on the playoff curve and has won nearly as many games (12) in his first year as Ditka and Smith did combined in their first full years (13). Nagy needs three wins to collect the Halas Trophy and NFC Championship ring two years ahead of when Ditka and Smith secured theirs.

So, all things considered, the greatest single turnaround in Bears history is….

You make the call.

Contact Us