Chicago Bears: 5 Burning questions after busy offseason
2. Can Nagy and his staff reverse the franchise’s misfortunes?
Over the course of the Bears’ history, two things are true — they have a strong running game and a great defense. While having a great defense is still good in this day and age, the offensive game is completely different. The days of three yards and a cloud of dust are over. You need to have a complicated, pass-heavy offense.
The Bears under John Fox were a mess offensively. Fox was an old-school coach in a new-school NFL. He couldn’t change his philosophy and now he’s out of the league. I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for him to get another call for a head coaching job.
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Matt Nagy is the epitome of the new-school age of offense. He doesn’t abandon the run. He’ll run the ball, yes (especially with a running back like Jordan Howard), but his priority is throwing the ball and moving the ball down the field quickly.
With Nagy as the offensive coordinator last year, the Kansas City Chiefs offense ranked 5th in yards and 6th in scoring. Additionally, the Chiefs ranked 1st in turnovers. They moved the ball, scored, and kept the turnovers to a minimum, everything the Bears couldn’t do well.
Also, Nagy has a lot of experience with quarterbacks. Before taking over as offensive coordinator of the Chiefs, he was their quarterbacks coach. Alex Smith had his best years with Nagy, and he turned that into a lucrative deal with Washington. The Bears hope Nagy does the same with Trubisky.
In addition to Nagy, the Bears hired Mark Helfrich as the offensive coordinator. The man who controlled the offense last season, Dowell Loggains, took a lot of heat for his pedestrian offense. However, I think he just did what Fox wanted him to do, even if it was something he didn’t want to run.
Helfrich shares the same offensive philosophy as Nagy. He wants as much of a high-powered offense as Nagy does. Helfrich did run a high-powered offense at the University of Oregon so he shares the same offensive values.
Having Harry Hiestand return as offensive line coach will be big for the Bears. He brought out the best of his players when he first coached the line from 2005-09. He then did the same at Notre Dame, producing a number of NFL linemen, including the best tackle and the best guard in this year’s draft.
The biggest thing the Bears did in terms of their coaching staff was bringing Vic Fangio back. That provides continuity for a defense that was top-ten in 2017. With additions to the defense and the same defensive coaches, this unit can become a top-five or perhaps the top defense in the league.
This appears to be a very solid coaching unit. If they get things together and they get the players to buy in, we can expect a lot more winning than we’ve seen over the last decade.