Four years ago on Thanksgiving Day at Ford Field, the Bears were trying to win their third game in 12 days but lost 34-17 to the Lions after leading 14-3 in the second quarter. It was the first of five consecutive losses as the Bears finished 5-11 in coach Marc Trestman’s second year.
It was a dreadful end to a dreary season that fueled disillusionment. Just two years earlier, the Bears were 10-6 under Lovie Smith in 2012. What seemed like a bold, progressive move by general manager Phil Emery — firing Lovie and hiring Trestman to maximize Jay Cutler and invigorate a disappointing offense — turned out to be a huge step backward.
Four years later, the Bears are 8-3 after beating the Lions 23-16 on Thanksgiving Day at Ford Field to win their third NFC North game in 12 days and put a playoff spot clearly into focus. The Bears not only are good under first-year coach Matt Nagy, but they’re getting better. They have a franchise quarterback in place and an offense and defense that both rank in the top 11 in points scored. All but three players on the current roster are under age 30.
A year ago, the Bears were 3-8. Today they’re 8-3. Here’s a look at the key moves that turned it around, from those dark days of 2014:
1. Firing Phil Emery as general manager.
The Halas/McCaskey family love their own. So firing Emery — a former scout under Mark Hatley and Jerry Angelo — after three seasons as general manager and firing Trestman after just two seasons as head coach were not easy moves. The Bears had never fired a coach after fewer than three seasons. But Virginia McCaskey’s ire confirmed a major shakeup was in order.
“She’s pissed off,” chairman George McCaskey said. “She’s fed up with mediocrity. She feels that she and Bears fans everywhere deserve better.”
2. Hiring Ernie Accorsi to head the GM search/hiring Ryan Pace.
Emery’s hiring was a McCaskey/Ted Phillips deal; the Bears hired a favored son whom they were familiar with and was much like them. And Emery in turn hired a coach in Trestman who was much like him. And it was a failure. Going outside the family to find new leadership was huge — a little like George Halas hiring outsider Jim Finks from the Vikings as general manager in 1974, which started the Bears on their way to Super Bowl XX.
Would the Bears have found Ryan Pace without Accorsi’s help?
“That’s a hypothetical,” team president Phillips said the day Pace was hired. “But I’ll tell you this: Ernie Accorsi, what a valuable asset. Great man. Great insight. What Ernie does is he can cut right through it and get right to the core of what we should be looking at from a football perspective. He’s been outstanding.”
The short answer: Highly unlikely.
3. Cleaning house.
Many new general managers undertake a significant amount of roster clean-up when they’re hired. But Pace went to an extreme when he replaced Emery, tearing down the roster from its foundation before he could rebuild it.
By the start of his third season in 2017, Pace had cleared the roster of virtually every playmaker he inherited — quarterback Jay Cutler and kicker Robbie Gould (wanted upgrades), wide receiver Brandon Marshall and tight end Martellus Bennett (weren’t worth the trouble), wide receiver Alshon Jeffery (didn’t want to be here), defensive end Jared Allen (didn’t fit the scheme) and running back Matt Forte, linebacker Lance Briggs and cornerback Charles Tillman (past their prime). Overall, 54 of the 62 players Pace inherited were gone by the start of the 2017 season.
That roster depletion put coach John Fox in a virtual no-win situation. But by clearing the decks, it also allowed Pace to re-stock the Bears with his own players who had ample opportunity to prove themselves. And many have.
4. Hiring Vic Fangio as defensive coordinator.
One of the benefits of hiring Fox as coach was his ability to hire quality assistants. It paid off when Fox convinced Fangio to come to Chicago instead of signing with the Redskins — a pretty good catch considering the Bears’ defense was ranked 30th in total yards and 31st in scoring in 2014. And Fangio in turn brought veteran secondary coach Ed Donatell.
Under Fangio, the Bears’ defense has ranked 14th, 15th, 10th and now third in total yards.
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5. Signing Akiem Hicks and Danny Trevathan in free agency in 2016.
Hicks was an unheralded defensive end who had never had more than 4½ sacks in a season and had just three with the Saints and Patriots in 2015. Trevathan was the leading tackler on the Broncos’ Super Bowl team but in the shadow of linebacker Von Miller and cornerback Aqib Talib, among others.
But both players have prospered in Fangio’s defense. Hicks in particular is blossoming in the right place at the right time as a 3-4 defensive end. Often unblockable one-on-one, he has four sacks, nine tackles for loss and 11 quarterback hits, with a great shot to make the Pro Bowl for the first time in his seven-year career.
6. Drafting Mitch Trubisky second overall in 2017.
We’ll never know if Pace could have gotten Trubisky at No. 3 without trading three other picks to move up — and Patrick Mahomes and Deshaun Watson sure look like good fallback options. But as a player and a leader, Trubisky looks like a quarterback who can win the Super Bowl.
7. Drafting safety Eddie Jackson and running back Tarik Cohen in 2017.
It’s one thing to get complementary players in the middle rounds of the draft, but these two are legitimate playmakers. Cohen’s versatility makes him a threat to score from anywhere on the field. Jackson, with four touchdowns this season and six in 17 games in the NFL, might be Pace’s best pound-for-pound draft pick.
8. Hiring Matt Nagy.
Fox was the right hire at the time because the Bears needed stability after the dysfunction of the Emery/Trestman era and more help on defense than on offense, with Cutler at quarterback.
But with an improved defense under Fangio and a developing quarterback in Trubisky, the dynamic changed, and the Bears needed an offensive coach who would develop Trubisky. Identifying and hiring Nagy looks like a masterstroke. He not only is developing Trubisky and the offense but seems to have the right touch as a modern-era NFL head coach.
9. Keeping Fangio.
It took a little coaxing, but stepping up and re-signing Fangio has paid off for all involved. Several players with two and three years already invested in Fangio’s defense got the benefit of continuity. And it allowed Nagy to let Fangio run his own show and concentrate on developing Trubisky and installing the offense.
10. Trading for Khalil Mack.
The same aggressiveness and audacity that led Pace to cut Gould and arguably overpay to get Trubisky also earned Pace the biggest prize in the 2018 offseason. Pace paid a big price, trading two first-round draft picks (which both could end up in the mid-20s at the Bears’ current rate of progress) and signing Mack to a six-year, $141 million extension. But Pace already is getting a big payoff.
That’s how you turn things around. Three years ago, the Bears hired Fox, added Pernell McPhee to a 30th-ranked defense and drafted Kevin White. This year, they hired Nagy, added Mack to a 10th-ranked defense and drafted Roquan Smith. When you deal from strength, everything seems to go your way.
