Chicago Bears 2021 NFL win total odds: Matt Nagy will take back offensive play-calling, Andy Dalton confirmed as starting quarterback
Chicago Bears head coach Matt Nagy will return to calling offensive plays in the 2021 season.
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This writer is a Chicago Bears fan, so I'll try and be impartial here, but I can say with 100 percent certainty that the vast majority of the team's fans is sick and tired of this franchise making mistake after mistake, mainly on offense. There is another social media uproar Friday with embattled head coach Matt Nagy announcing at a press conference that he will resume offensive play-calling – and that Andy Dalton already is locked in as the team's starting quarterback. Chicago is given an Over/Under win total of 7 on the NFL odds for the 17-game season.
If the Bears win only seven games (or fewer) in 2021, both Nagy and even more embattled general manager Ryan Pace will be fired – well, Pace will be removed from the GM spot but could move elsewhere in the organization as for some reason he is beloved by ownership. No coach/GM duo enters the new season on a hotter seat.
Incidentally, with the NFL officially adding the 17th game this week, Chicago will visit the Raiders – the Bears' first-ever game in Las Vegas. The only team to vote against adding a 17th game? The Bears. No reason was given, which is typical Bears.
When Chicago was 5-4 last season, struggling mightily on offense and on a three-game losing streak, Nagy gave up offensive play-calling to offensive coordinator Bill Lazor. While the Bears lost their next three, they did play better on that side of the ball once Mitchell Trubisky returned as the starting quarterback.
The Bears scored 30 or more points in four straight games in December (as opposed to once in the first nine games with Nagy calling plays), winning three of them to earn a wild-card spot. The offense fell flat in the wild-card loss to New Orleans. Lazor called plays for the Dolphins and Bengals before joining the Bears last offseason.
Trubisky is long gone, replaced by Dalton – odd that the team already is anointing Dalton as the starter and not having a competition with Nick Foles, whom Pace gave up a fourth-round pick for last offseason. On Friday, Pace essentially referred to Dalton as Joe Montana. The Bears are expected to take a QB fairly early in the 2020 draft but probably not with their No. 20 overall pick unless Mac Jones falls that far (not likely). Perhaps someone like Florida's Kyle Trask in Round 2.
At William Hill Sportsbook, the Bears are +600 third favorites to win the NFC North and +5000 to win Super Bowl 56 – the same odds as Carolina, which was 5-11 last year.
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