Evan Washburn: 'Curious To See How Matt Nagy, Mitchell Trubisky Mature In Year 2'
New York (CBS Local)- The first year of the Mitchell Trubisky and Matt Nagy partnership was a fruitful one for the Chicago Bears.
A 12-4 record and NFC North Division crown saw the team make the playoffs for the first time since 2010. However, once they got there, an unfortunate bounce off the upright on a Cody Parkey field goal attempt sent them packing in the Wild Card round.
Entering this season, things are a bit more murky for the Bears. They are still expected to be in the NFC North hunt, but the question is whether they can once again hold off the rival Packers and Vikings. So, what are the expectations for the Bears this season?
"Well I think they're probably pretty high because of what Matt Nagy was able to do," said CBS Sports NFL sideline reporter Evan Washburn in an interview with DJ Sixsmith at NFL on CBS Media Day. "He looks at the strengths of Trubisky. His athleticism, his ability to run the ball, and having a strong arm. And he tailored and created an offense that I think, really built to those strengths."
The Bears enter the season with the 3rd-best odds of reaching the Super Bowl at 12/1 according to Sportsline. A lot of that has to do with the defense's dominance, but in order to reach those goals, Washburn says the Trubisky-Nagy pairing will need to take another step forward.
"At some point, Trubisky is going to have to take a step forward and be able to take on more. Whether it's checks at the line, the level of offense they're going to run, because defenses have had a whole offseason to scout what Nagy's done in Year 1 and what Trubisky did. So, I'll be curious to see how they mature. Everybody can have that break out year and Nagy had that running that team and that offense. But, it's how you respond to a full offseason of defensive coordinators poring over what it is you do."
The Bears open up the league's 100th year celebration with an opening night game against the Green Bay Packers on Thursday, September 5.
