The Tampa Bay Buccaneers won Super Bowl LV on Sunday, defeating the Kansas City Chiefs to deliver Tom Brady his record-extending seventh Super Bowl title.
The Chicago Bears, who beat Brady and the Bucs in the regular season, became "Transitive Property" Champions.
(Between Mitch Trubisky winning the first ever "NVP" and the Bears achieving this claim to success, it was some playoff season for Chicago!) As we head into a crucial offseason for Ryan Pace, Matt Nagy and this Bears franchise in general, rumors have already started surrounding the Bears, namely around the QB position. Chicago also had some turnover on their coaching staff, so they'll go into a crucial season with some new voices attempting to lead a rebound, in addition to familiar voices getting elevated. The new league year starts in March, but the fun's already getting started. With that, let's reach into this week's Bears Mailbag. Thanks to all who submitted questions. Follow me on Twitter @DhruvKoul to continue the conversation.
Bears Mailbag
If you're implying that Pace and Nagy haven't been helping the Bears, that seems a bit harsh. There have been challenges, struggles and mistakes made for sure, but this team still doesn't have a losing record over the last three years, and have made the playoffs twice -- regardless of the amended format. Pace's biggest issues were the Mitch Trubisky miss and the inadequate evaluation of the offensive line talent. To his credit, there are many reports of the Bears talking with major OL prospects at the Senior Bowl. From a QB perspective, while the Nick Foles trade didn't pan out, remember the Bears did pursue Tom Brady and Teddy Bridgewater first, and Foles became a reasonable backup option, given his history. And now, the Bears have reportedly held firm in their discussions with Philadelphia about Carson Wentz, and they are also doing their due diligence on other QBs on the market (e.g. Derek Carr). These are improvements from Pace's process in the past. Nagy is still growing in his role as a head coach and there were plenty of promising traits he displayed in 2020. While the Trubisky benching was criticized because of how Foles played and the Bears' improvements after the bye week, it was not a decision made in a vacuum based on one game in Atlanta, as everyone knows. His willingness to consider and then eventually relinquish play calling duties was a sign of self-scouting. The bye week changes the Bears made in reverting back to some Week 1-2 schematic changes was another example. So there are examples of growth, and we'll see what Nagy decides to do with his offense once they have a new QB in place. Chicago is embroiled in a battle of Trubisky "Truthers" and "Haters." The reality is, rooting for the kid to succeed and acknowledging he is a bad QB *can* coexist. Trubisky will never be a "win because of" QB, due to his inability to process/think. The Bears saw what happened when disciplined defenses (Green Bay, New Orleans) took away his rollouts -- he had no answers. When there is *that* much dependency on scheme, there just isn't much else the Bears could've done. Now, if a QB with prior success and true ability, like Derek Carr, is brought to Chicago and he wilts as well, then we can talk about lining up new coaching candidates. The Bears have a tough schedule in 2021 on paper, so they will need the new coaches to flourish more than ever. For now, sit back and enjoy the offseason. It'll be a busy one.
