Nagy is giving up play calling duties on Monday night (Patrick Gorski - USA Today Sports)
Nagy is giving up play calling duties on Monday night (Patrick Gorski - USA Today Sports)

Bears News: Matt Nagy to give up play calling duties


by - Staff Writer -

Reports have come out of Halas Hall that the Bears plan to have offensive coordinator Bill Lazor take over play-calling duties from Matt Nagy this Monday night.

The Bears’ offense has been plagued with short starts, inefficiency especially on short-yardage situations and above all, lack of points put on the board. A lot of the game had been placed on Mitchell Trubisky, but with the offenses struggles continuing without him, Nagy became the one in question.

In past weeks, Nagy has mentioned that part of being successful is not having a big enough ego to recognize you are the problem — and now Lazor is taking over play-calling duties.

"I just wanted to let everybody know that I made the decision to go ahead and pass up the play calling," Nagy said to the media Friday. "It's very, very important for me to make sure I'm doing everything I possibly can to make the best decision for the Chicago Bears. And that's where we're at right now. It allows me to really look at all three phases from the head coaching position."

Nagy said that it was a very difficult decision.

"I'd be lying to every one of you guys if I told you that this is easy," he said. "It's not. It's not easy. It's one of my favorite parts of coaching. I love calling plays. I love it.

"We talk about belief, we talk about trust. I talk about that all the time with the players. Do you believe in yourself? Do you believe in your teammates? Do you believe in your coaches? Do you trust your coaches? Well, this is showing my trust and my belief in our coaches."

Lazor has served as quarterback coach in Seattle, Washington, and Philadelphia, where he originally became familiar with Nick Foles. Most recently, Lazor was the offensive coordinator in Miami and Cincinnati before becoming offensive coordinator with the Bears.

This won’t be his first time calling plays, but it will be the first time he’s calling them for the Bears — in a much needed Monday Night game against Minnesota.

Comment on this story
Print   
Send Feedback to Anthony Pasquale: Email | Comment
Post your comments!