How Bears are dealing with Nagy's uncertain future

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The Bears squandered a 14-0 lead in their final game of the season, locking up a 6-11 record. It was a fitting finale for what’s almost assuredly the end of Matt Nagy’s tenure as head coach. But after the game, his players dealt with the uncertainty of the future, by not thinking about the future at all.

“Do you know what’s going to happen tomorrow, Tuesday?” said Roquan Smith. “I don’t think anyone can answer what if. All the uncertainty, that’s life. That’s life. You don’t know what’s gonna happen tomorrow.

“Hey, we can all be here today, gone tomorrow. So we don’t know. I don’t live in that world. I live in the present and that’s how I’ll always be and look forward and move forward.”

“Honestly I just take everything one day at a time and one game at a time so whatever is in front of my face at that point of time,” said Darnell Mooney. “Where my feet are, I want to be where my feet are. I don't focus on the future or anything or the past so I just stay in the present.”

Mooney went as far as to say Nagy addressed the team as if he was coming back next year. When Nagy took the podium, he also relayed a “business as usual” mentality. But he offered a more realistic perspective to his situation, as well.

“I know this: whatever is supposed to happen will happen,” Nagy said. “I’m a positive person. I think that it’s about these players right now, and these players have fought their asses off. They play hard. They sacrifice their body every day. Everything else will take care of itself how it’s supposed to.

“The day that I signed up to be the head coach here in Chicago, on a year-to-year basis, you're always understanding what comes with your position. That's real. That's life. The situation that we're in this year is one where we know our record's not good enough. We all want to be better. We know that. This is all stuff that comes attached to it. You've gotta deal with it. You can't run from it. You've gotta be real. You've gotta talk about it. You've gotta understand it.”

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