Bears coach Matt Nagy: Report that he’ll be fired after Lions game is ‘not accurate’

Matt Nagy shot down the notion that the Bears have fired him as head coach effective after the upcoming Thanksgiving game against the Lions.

A report from suburban news website Patch.com stirred a frenzy Tuesday morning with a report that Bears chairman George McCaskey had already informed Nagy that he would be fired after the Lions game.

“That is not accurate,” Nagy said Tuesday.

In more than a century of ownership, the family has never fired a head coach during a season.

Nagy would not answer repeated questions about whether he is assured of coaching the rest of the season. He said he hasn’t spoken to McCaskey this week, but that was “scheduled” because the Bears have a quick turnaround before Thursday’s game.

Nagy goes into the Lions game with a 31-27 record, but he is 19-23 over the last three seasons. The team sits 3-7 and the offense — Nagy’s supposed specialty — is 29th in scoring (16.3 points per game), 31st in yards per play (4.9), 30th in passer rating (75.1) and ninth in yards per rush (4.6).

They are one of four teams that has yet to score 30 points and are coming off an embarrassing 16-13 loss to the Ravens at home in a game that was littered with Nagy’s poor decisions.

Nagy, who had the best record through 38 games (25-13) of any Bears coach since George Halas, went 12-4 in his debut season and won Coach of the Year. The Bears captured the NFC North for their first playoff berth since 2010, though the season ended on kicker Cody Parkey’s double-doink as the Eagles knocked them out 16-15.

Since then, the offense has been abysmal. Over the 2019 through ‘21 seasons, the Bears have scored the sixth-fewest points in the NFL.

When asked Monday if he could defend his work, Nagy tried to steer the attention back to the Lions game.

“The only thing that we can do is keep playing and keep coaching and keep doing everything we can to win,” he said. “That’s it. You know what I mean?

“We want to win every game, but we’ve got to understand how we’re getting calloused right now. And at the same point in time, you stick to your core values, which is just believing in one another and continuing to fight. That’s all we can do. You know, that’s what I know this team will do.”

McCaskey admitted in January that bringing Nagy and general manager Ryan Pace back for another season was unpopular, but did it anyway. He said he needed to see “progress” from both men.

“I think all four of us will know whether there’s been sufficient improvement or sufficient progress to continue past 2021,” McCaskey said, including team president Ted Phillips in the discussion.

It would be nearly impossible to claim there has been progress this season under Nagy, who heard chants of, “Fire Nagy,” and, “Nagy sucks,” late in the Ravens game.

Safety Tashaun Gipson said he supports Nagy — “I stand by, boldly,” he said — and that the locker room has not given up.