There’s something to be said about the culture that Matt Nagy has created in Chicago. For all of his faults last season on offense, Nagy has created the kind of culture that players want to be a part of.
It also doesn’t hurt when you have your defensive players helping recruit talent that can make your already-dominant defense even better.
Much like two-time Pro Bowl safety Eddie Jackson played a role in bringing safety Ha Ha Clinton-Dix to Chicago last year, cornerback Buster Skrine had a hand in getting new safety Tashaun Gipson to join the Bears.
“Having a guy like Buster here who’s able to tell me and be real about how things are operated and run here was major and it was a key point for me because that’s somebody I trusted,” Gipson said, via ChicagoBears.com. “He had nothing but great things to say about the city, about the organization, about the fans, and that made it a whole lot easier.”
Despite the Bears’ disappointing 2019 season, it says a lot about this franchise when players believe that Chicago is a place where you can come and play meaningful football. After all, the expectation is playoffs. Even after last year’s struggles. And Gipson certainly sounds like he believes the Bears are poised to make a run in 2020.
“I want to play meaningful games and win games,” Gipson said. “You only get such a small window to be able to play in this league and leave your mark. And being able to play in meaningful games, this is a team that’s got everything that you need to be able to truly make a run and I think that that was a major deciding factor for me.”
But as alluring as the potential to be a team that has the potential to make a playoff run, is a team that has the kind of culture that makes you proud to wear the uniform and be a part of a franchise. Which is exactly what Skrine pitched to Gipson.
“He talked about the coaching staff and how just cool and how just vibrant the atmosphere there is,” Gipson said. “Besides everything else, when you walk in the building the biggest thing that you want to do is make sure that you’re having fun. This is a kids’ game. We’ve been playing this game since we were kids. At the end of the day, that was the biggest thing for me is when he talked about the coaches and how much he had love for them.”
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