‘We’re building this thing’ — how coach Matt Nagy started Bears’ construction

Coach Matt Nagy didn’t have to look far for the perfect analogy to share with his team. From the window in his office, he can watch the Bears’ construction project: a 162,500-square-foot addition to the Halas Hall complex, expected to be completed in August 2019.

“Just seeing out my window, the communication of the guys who are building, pouring the concrete and the cement and people in the background talking: ‘How do you do this? How do you do that?’ ” he said. “That’s what we’re doing right now as a team.

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“And so, my message to them was for all of them to understand and everybody around who’s a part of this team, I want them to know that we want to win now. So you’ve got to understand what it takes to get there. You can’t just say you’re going to do it.”

The night before his Bears put on their hard hats for the first time — they wore helmets at their first of three voluntary minicamp practices Tuesday — Nagy prepared his notes. He wrote construction talking points on white 3×5 cards with a Bears logo on the back.

The key to the cards, a trick he learned from Chiefs boss Andy Reid, is to know the material without making the recitation sound rote.

Defensive end Akiem Hicks, the Bears’ best player last year and a self-described “people-reader,” noticed the cards Tuesday and when the Bears first gathered two weeks ago to begin the offseason program.

“You always get a good feel for a coach with how he addresses the entire team,” Hicks said. “And he makes sure he hits all his points, he has his cue cards out and makes sure that he gets everybody in line and knows what we’ve got for the day and stuff like that.

“He’s very — I wouldn’t say OCD yet — but he’s very detailed.”

Said running back Jordan Howard: “It’s a tight-run program.”

It’s easy to be optimistic in April, but Nagy and the Bears seemed positively buoyant when he separated himself from John Fox by practicing indoors, wearing a visor and spending 18 minutes answering questions about his team.

The Bears have replaced Fox’s sayings by painting Nagy’s motivational messages throughout Halas Hall: “The Most Powerful Weapon on Earth is the Human Soul on Fire,” “Chicago Tough,” “Be You” and “Obsessed to be the Best.”

The last phrase best describes the former Chiefs coordinator. He talks often of obsession, of caring deeply enough to do every little thing the right way.

Details are why Nagy spends so much time with note cards and why he has spent time admiring a construction project from his office perch.

“Because there’s accountability,” Nagy said. “So if the guy next to you isn’t detailed and he fails, then he’s failing with his side of accountability. That’s not just the players. Let’s remember that’s the coaches, too, and it’s going to start with me.”

If it starts with Nagy, it soon extends to quarterback Mitch Trubisky, whom he was hired to incubate. Midway through practice, Nagy pulled the second-year player aside to tell him how he was amazed by the way he handled his first day. Nagy declared himself very happy with Trubisky’s consistency, from the first snap to the last.

“He was impressive,” Nagy said. “I don’t want to put too much on him. But at the same time, he needs to understand that was pretty good, what just happened.”

Even if the cement won’t harden for months.

“This isn’t something we want to just spray-paint on and cover up for a little bit,” Nagy said. “We’re building this thing. So let’s understand that and the work that’s involved.”