If 'the best leaders are the players,' where are the Bears'?

There's no official handbook when it comes to leadership, which can manifest itself in different ways, during different times and from different places.

Sure, the Bears were borrowing this summer from “Legacy,” the book on the New Zealand All Blacks rugby team, whose “sweep the sheds” motto even spawned an official weekly award given to players.

Matt Nagy said Sunday, following the awful loss to the New Orleans Saints that dropped his Bears to 3-3, that “the best leaders are the players” and “he'll be really curious to see which players on our team step up and start taking more leadership in times like this,” while he wasn't passing the buck, it was apparent that he and them haven't really experienced times like this and how they might respond is unclear.

But it's become increasingly apparent during the recent slide that, at least generally speaking, two areas where most NFL teams lean heavily for leadership — their quarterbacks on each side of the ball — may not be the first for these Bears.

After all, Mitch Trubisky may not have the current cachet when it comes to his own confidence and credibility to be the leader the Bears need at the moment, and it was Nagy — the first to posit that his quarterback's confidence is wavering — who admitted quite candidly this week that Roquan Smith isn't currently making the contributions that the Bears need and expect on the field.

Is it possible Trubisky and Smith's on-field struggles have only emboldened them to be better leaders? Sure. But at least in an ideal scenario, leaders can back up their leadership with their play on the field, something that simply hasn't happened of late for this pair.

For some teams — possibly including the Bears, only time will tell — this would signal a crisis. But it also may be fortuitous that the two players who work as closely with Trubisky and Smith also might be the Bears' best leaders — and most consistent performers — on their respective side of the balls.

“Allen (Robinson) is naturally an introverted person. But he's one of those guys when you get him on the field and he speaks through his play,” Nagy said Thursday, also including Tarik Cohen, as the two on offense that “immediately jump out.”

Robinson's approach, like that of his head coach, undoubtedly is rooted in unrelenting positivity. Unlike his head coach, Robinson is playing some of the best football of his life — as arguably the only area of Nagy's offense that doesn't appear broken.

“I wholeheartedly think that negativity isn't going to make guys make plays or help this offense or help us win games,” Robinson told Bears Insider on Wednesday. “That's not going to happen. I do know that. With everybody staying positive, it's not one of those things where guys are complacent and positive. We're trying to create solutions. We're trying to be our best and we're trying to figure out how we can be better.”

Robinson indicated the players-only meeting earlier this week “accomplished everything we wanted to communication-wise” and maintained the positive tone he's worked hard this week to convey.

Nagy is the first to admit the coach is as hands-off as it gets when it comes to Chuck Pagano's defense, but, like with Robinson on offense, he said there was little surprise on defense in whose voice and actions have carried a lot of weight this week.

“(Danny Trevathan) is huge. He's a natural born leader. Some guys, they try to be leaders and they're not. He's a natural leader. We go to him as coaches. We say, 'Leaders create leaders.' Well, he's a pure example of when he says something … there's certain guys that say things. I remember back in Kansas City when Eric Berry said something, everybody including every coach on the staff they listened. Danny's the same way.”

Trevathan has been the leading tackler and defensive captain on a Super Bowl champion. Either he or Khalil Mack or Kyle Fuller has been the most consistent performer on defense this season. It's no wonder, then, that he has that kind of an effect in a building — evident for the better part of his Bears tenure, through good times and bad, not merely this week, of course.

And, like Robinson, who pointed only to himself for his two near-big plays in the loss Sunday — when most others pointed at Trubisky — Trevathan said holding the Bears' lagging offense more accountable is hardly his concern right now; it's finding more ways he can improve himself and the defense.

“We're a team. We know they're going to get it rolling. (We can) get the ball in their hands a lot more. We didn't come away with the turnovers that we wanted — that's on us. We know where we stand right now. We know we have to play a lot better to put us in better situations.”

Trevathan described the players-only meeting as “full-tilt,” and said that “guys know that everybody can be a little bit better and everybody took that attitude today.”

Nagy's message to his players this week was to “get tighter, believe in one another, keep trusting. And bond together and then when you get that one win, it just sparks.”

His players are still seeking that on-field spark, but during a week when it'd be easy to divide, his players appear to be heeding their coach's message on staying united.