Chicago Bears: Ted Phillips is out of his element

The Chicago Bears will continue to toil in mediocrity until Ted Phillips gets his priorities straight.

In a season where the Chicago Bears went 8-8 for the second-straight year, lost both their games against the Packers by double-digits, and ended the season with a blowout loss after stumbling ass-backwards into the playoffs, their most demoralizing defeat may have taken place on a Wednesday morning via Zoom.

The Bears held their yearly end-of-season press conference, letting all four key members of their leadership speak: owner George McCaskey, president Ted Phillips, general manager Ryan Pace and head coach Matt Nagy. It was even more embarrassing than the most pessimistic fan expected, as the Bears brass dodged questions and answered with buzzwords and empty platitudes for nearly 90 straight minutes.

But perhaps the worst performance came from Phillips, who rarely addresses the media, which led some to believe he was going to announce his retirement. Instead, Phillips made it clear that he is here to stay along with everyone else.

At every step, Phillips appeared unprepared, tone-deaf and completely out of his element. Everything he said not only demonstrated an acceptance of mediocrity, but also the fact that he doesn’t understand the fundamental goal of a football team – which is to win.

Let’s dissect some of what Phillips had to say:

“We’re not happy, we’re not satisfied,” Phillips said, as he went on to make no major changes after two straight 8-8 seasons.

“Not all the decisions may be the right ones, but when you can collaborate, and trust each other and have the ability to challenge each other and come out united, you stand a better chance to make more right decisions than wrong ones.”

Oh really? Like trading a fourth-round draft pick and absorbing guaranteed money over three years for Nick Foles? That was a united decision. Nick Foles had a passer rating of 80.8. Was that a “right decision” or a “wrong decision?”

“We have exactly the right football culture that all teams strive for.”

Ah yes, Ted, please tell us more about this “culture” we hear so much about, less than 72 hours after Anthony Miller was ejected from a playoff game for punching C.J. Gardner-Johnson. A guy who had previously gotten another Bears receiver, Javon Wims, ejected the last time they played. A player who Nagy reportedly held a team meeting about, warning of his antics. That culture?

“We trust Ryan and Matt to be solution-oriented, and to continue to work through all of those challenges together and get us on the right path towards being a winning Chicago Bears team.”

Throwing out the fact that this is jargon you’d find in a breakout Zoom at a Silicon Valley startup, when are we going to stop “working through the challenges” and actually get somewhere? Ryan Pace has been there six years. Nagy’s teams have gotten worse in all three of his seasons. Where are the results?

“Many teams, when you lose six games in a row, will fall, and they will finger-point. They won’t recover from that. We did.”

Okay, a lot to unpack here. For starters, you’re rewarding professionals for doing their job, continuing to play hard through a losing streak? Isn’t that what their game checks are for? And if “recovering” means beating three of the worst teams in football, losing to the Packers and getting destroyed in the first round of the playoffs, the Bears’ CEO is as delusional as the guy blowing up your Twitter mentions.

And then, the most absurd, laughable, ridiculous quote of all:

“When you sit back and look at what makes a successful organization, besides wins and losses, it’s the people that you have.”

This is the precise thing that Phillips fails to understand about running a football team. Winning matters infinitely more than “people.” Really, it’s the only thing that truly matters. “People” are the main key to success when you’re talking about a book club. About who to put in a wedding party. Not a multi-billion dollar sports team, in a major market, in the NFL.

Phillips has been president and CEO since 1999, and in his 21 years at the helm, the Bears have been to one Super Bowl, have had seven winning seasons, made the playoffs six times (including this year at 8-8) and won three playoff games. In that span, the Jacksonville Jaguars have won four. The New York Jets have won six.

The thing we kept hearing from this stupid, stupid press conference was how well the Bears’ brass work together. But together, what have they accomplished? Nothing.

Ted Phillips – who, don’t get it twisted, is definitely making all of the “football decisions” despite McCaskey saying otherwise – likes Ryan Pace and Matt Nagy. He thinks they’re “good people.” He gets along with them. Who doesn’t like working with their friends? But if you don’t get anything done, it’s not a business. It’s a frat house.

It’s overwhelmingly clear that Ted Phillips does not have his priorities straight as the Bears’ chief decision maker. Bears fans, of which there continue to be many despite sitting through so many losing seasons, don’t care about the “people.” They care about winning. Mike Ditka and Buddy Ryan hated each other. Guess what? They won a Super Bowl.

Not a single Bears fan cares that Phillips, Nagy and Pace get along. They don’t care about the “culture.” They want to root for a winning team. The Bears under Phillips have not been that. Not even close.

“Have we gotten the quarterback situation completely right? No. Have we won enough games? No. Everything else is there,” Phillips said at the end of the presser.

There is nothing else. That’s everything. That’s what he fails to understand. And that’s why the Bears are never going to win anything if he continues to call the shots.