Timeline for when Bears may fire Matt Nagy

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The Bears 2021 season is coming to a close, and with it, so may be Matt Nagy’s tenure leading the team. After an 8-8 season in 2020, and a non-competitive Wild Card playoff exit, George McCaskey made it clear that the team would need to show progress this season for Nagy, and possibly Ryan Pace, to keep their jobs. Instead, the Bears have gone 6-10, with one game remaining, ensuring the Bears’ first losing season over Nagy’s four years as head coach.

So when will the axe finally drop?

At this point it seems most likely that the team would make the move on “Black Monday,” the day after the final regular season game when many teams opt to move on from their head coaches. That’s also the day the Bears parted with their five previous head coaches: John Fox, Marc Trestman, Lovie Smith, Dick Jauron and Dave Wannstedt. The Bears waited over a week to fire Mike Ditka following a 5-11 finish in the 1992 season.

There was some speculation that the Bears might fire Nagy midseason, something they’ve never done in franchise history, due to a new NFL rule that allows teams to interview head coaching candidates if they have a vacancy. But that hasn’t come to pass (so far). It seems unlikely to happen this week either, as Nagy seemed confident he would finish the season as the team’s head coach when asked in December.

Win or lose in Week 18, Nagy is guaranteed to have the best winning percentage of any Bears head coach since Smith went 81-63 from 2004-2012.

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