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Chicago Bears: Theories on why Dave Ragone wasn’t fired

By Ryan Fedrau

LOS ANGELES, CA - NOVEMBER 17: Head coach Matt Nagy of the Chicago Bears yells from the sidelines in the second half of the game against the Los Angeles Rams at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on November 17, 2019 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Jayne Kamin-Oncea/Getty Images)
LOS ANGELES, CA - NOVEMBER 17: Head coach Matt Nagy of the Chicago Bears yells from the sidelines in the second half of the game against the Los Angeles Rams at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on November 17, 2019 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Jayne Kamin-Oncea/Getty Images) /
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Chicago Bears, Matt Nagy
Chicago Bears (Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images) /

The Chicago Bears fired multiple coaches on the offensive side of the ball a few days ago. The one name that wasn’t on that list was quarterback Dave Ragone.

The Chicago Bears‘ head coach Matt Nagy and Ryan Pace had some tough decisions to make after an 8-8 season, a season where Super Bowl hopes were high. When teams make the playoffs, they lose offensive coaches to other teams offering them a bigger position. In this case, the Bears fired their offensive coaches due to missing the playoffs. That is the nature of coaching in a nutshell. However, Dave Ragone retained his job, and it has us asking why?

As I read down the list, I didn’t agree with every choice the Bears’ made. I don’t think Brock Olivo should have been fired. I don’t know what he could have done wrong? His most notable job is to work with the kickers and punters, who had great seasons. Olivo also works with the return teams. I didn’t see a big enough issue with special teams that needed a coach to be fired. That might just be Pace and Nagy adding to the list to show they made chances.

The firing of Mark Helfrich was actually way overdue. Helfrich shouldn’t have even gotten the job. He struggled as a head coach in Oregon with a totally different offense. Helfrich coming to Chicago to work with Nagy was a disaster waiting to happen. The disaster was poor production on the offensive side of the ball.

The other two coaches fired were offensive line coach Harry Hiestand and tight ends coach Kevin Gilbride. There can be arguments on why Gilbride shouldn’t have lost his job but there is no argument for Hiestand.

The tight end position was filled with injuries the last few seasons here in Chicago. It’s hard to be a successful coach when all you deal with are backups. The offensive line wasn’t what it should have been. Yes, there were some injuries throughout the season but it came down to coaching. The coaching was terrible for the offensive line. Everything starts with the offensive line and it didn’t work.

But as noted earlier, Ragone kept his job and we wonder what some of the reasons are for that decision.

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