Matt Nagy, Ryan Pace know that ‘right now, you’ve gotta win’Patrick Finleyon July 27, 2021 at 7:29 pm

One storm passed. Another one might await.

But Bears general manager Ryan Pace and coach Matt Nagy are experiencing a specific sensation on the eve of a season that will define their careers with the franchise. They talked to each other about it in the last week.

“Matt said this the other day, and I thought it was a good point — there’s a calmness right now that we just feel,” Pace said Tuesday as Bears players streamed into Halas Hall to check into training camp. “I think it’s because of our communication, communication with ownership, with [president/CEO Ted Phillips], throughout our staff.

“We’ve been together long enough. There’s a calmness along with an excitement going into the season.”

It was chairman George McCaskey, of course, who gave both men another season. That seemed unlikely at the nadir of last season, when the Bears lost their sixth-straight game to fall to 5-7. They then went 3-1 the rest of the way, backed into the playoffs and were blown out by the Saints.

Even as McCaskey decided to leave the power structure of Phillips, Pace and Nagy intact, he acknowledged in January that the decision “might not be the easiest or most popular.” Some frustrated Bears fans probably nodded in agreement.

Asked what he needed to do to justify the belief of his bosses, Nagy was straightforward Tuesday.

“Like a lot of teams, owners and head coaches in this league and general managers, is, right now, you’ve gotta win,” he said. “That’s keeping it really simple. That’s every team’s goal every year is to do that.

“We want to do it the right way. We’re extremely motivated in a good way in the fact that these are challenges. We look forward to these. We know that we have support from them, and that’s No. 1. We have support from them. Now it’s just a matter of putting it all together with the players and coaches.”

Nagy, who is entering the fourth year of a five-year contract, would likely earn an extension — and continue to be paired with Pace — if the Bears indeed put it all together this year. If the Bears struggle, or if there’s a glitch in the development of rookie quarterback Justin Fields, the Bears could fire them at the end of the season.

Pace said that Fields won’t be rushed into action because of any pressure surrounding he and Nagy’s job status.

“No, not at all,” he said. “What’s best for this organization, always.”

Human nature dictates that walking the line between winning now and prioritizing the future was difficult for Pace this offseason. Pace, though, insists it wasn’t.

Trading first round picks this year and next for the star Ohio State quarterback was seen by those around the league as a no-brainer, not an act of desperation. Pace pointed to his most recent trade — shipping receiver Anthony Miller, alongside a seventh-round pick, for the Texans’ fifth-rounder in 2022 — as proof that he is building for beyond this season.

“I’m always thinking about the long-term health of this team and this franchise,” Pace said. “And that’s my responsibility to always think long-term. We have a lot of those discussions because sometimes it is natural to kind of hone in on this myopic vision, but for me, it’s easy to think long term as we make these plans …

“It all goes into our bigger plan to make this thing successful long term.”

But first, it needs to be successful in the short term.

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