Bears' Nagy, Foles still learning to work with each other
Whenever Nick Foles and the Bears offense walked off the field last Thursday against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Foles hurried to the same corner of the bench, where a tablet was waiting for him.
A staffer handed head coach Matt Nagy another tablet. Conversations on the headset ensued. Nagy frequently made his way over to Foles for these discussions.
For all the time Nagy and Foles have spent together over the years in Philadelphia, Kansas City and now Chicago, this is the first time Nagy has ever called plays for Foles.
As with anything new, it's a work in progress.
"Nick was joking about it with me," Nagy said Wednesday. "It's funny because on the sideline when he was talking to me about picking the pace up and doing different things, some people can take that like we were arguing. He was laughing about it because that's not who we are. That's how you talk through things and you figure out what you like and don't like."
Foles is opinionated, especially when it comes to football. Nagy, too, is opinionated. For the first time since he became the Bears head coach, Nagy is working with a starting quarterback who is not a young, work-in-progress draft pick. He's working with someone with some experience.
Foles has his own set of observations as a ninth-year NFL veteran who has been around the block a time or two. Sure, things might become animated between Nagy and Foles once in a while on the sideline - but quarterbacks coach John DeFilippo said those conversations caught on the television broadcast were not heated.
"You have two guys that love football and are very competitive, and it's great that they talk things out and try to get on the same page sooner than later," he said.
It all comes back to the fact that everyone knows the Bears' offense needs to be better. The offense did enough to win the game last week against the Buccaneers, but it was not pretty by any means.
Foles missed some open receivers, badly in some instances. Nagy lamented Friday that the mistakes were everywhere - from missed throws, to receivers not running the right routes, to linemen missing assignments.
Foles echoed that criticism.
"I don't think we're where we want to be in the passing game right now," Foles said. "We want to be a lot more efficient, a lot better. But I also know there's a progression. It doesn't just happen overnight. It's never happened overnight ever in my career."
This will be a big week of practice for the Bears. With the short week last week because of a Thursday night game, practice was limited to light walk-throughs. The Bears have issues to iron out and last week wasn't the ideal time to do it.
That won't be the case this week. Foles is putting a lot of that pressure on himself.
"I mean as a quarterback it's every little thing," Foles said. "It's making sure the route's right, it's making sure I have the conversations with the receivers, tight ends and running backs. What I expect on the routes, what we see. Understanding why Matt is calling a play and what we're looking for."