The Chicago Bears offense has a new man in charge. Don’t get it wrong. Matt Nagy runs the show. He made it clear he’ll call the plays and this system will run through his vision. There’s nothing wrong with that. It’s his show and what he says goes. Players already like him. They see his passion for the game and his natural leadership that’s getting them motivated to work and play harder than ever before.
Yet when it comes to just the offense and it’s growing formation so far this offseason, the players involved aren’t mentioning Nagy’s name when they get most excited. No, that honor is reserved for offensive coordinator Mark Helfrich. It seems the former head coach at Oregon, who was an analyst for Fox Sports during the 2017 season, has made quite the first impression.
Multiple Bears players have come forward singing his praises, and this is even before the serious stuff gets started in training camp and preseason.
Mark Helfrich is layering the new Chicago Bears offense
One of the persistent complaints about the Bears offense in 2017 was a lack of diversity. They were considered far too predictable and allowed defenses to dictate the pace of games. It too often put them at a disadvantage. Tarik Cohen explained to Patrick Finley of the Chicago Sun-Times why it’s already so different with Helfrich.
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‘‘He’s just a bag full of tricks. You never know what plays he’s going to have out here to install. You’re coming into work excited about what the day’s going to bring.’’
Complexity, tempo, and misdirection were trademarks of the Helfrich offense at Oregon. Teams just weren’t ready for what they had to offer. This often led to gigantic explosions of points that even the top teams in the country couldn’t handle. Just look at what they did to #9 ranked Stanford in 2010. The Cardinal defense had given up just 18.3 points leading up to this game.
Keep in mind this was AFTER Stanford took a 21-3 lead. So basically the Ducks hung 49 points on them in three quarters. That’s bananas and a firm reminder that holding Helfrich down for 60 minutes can be almost impossible.
Mitch Trubisky piled onto what Cohen said as well
‘‘Coach Helfrich is so smart. He’s a very detailed guy. He brings a lot of creativeness to this offense. Obviously he’s got tempo in his background, so we like to implement a little bit of that.
‘‘Just his football intelligence and IQ and how he can help me detail plays and just think about different things from different perspectives have allowed me to grow in different areas already. He’s been a huge help.’’
People assume that the Helfrich offense was all about the spread and throwing the ball everywhere. This was undoubtedly a myth crafted by his work with Marcus Mariota. If one were to go back and look though? They’d find that running the football was a constant strength. Here is a quick rundown of where Oregon ranked in the nation in rushing every year Helfrich was there.
- 2009: 6th
- 2010: 6th
- 2011: 4th
- 2012: 2nd
- 2013: 11th
- 2014: 17th
- 2015: 6th
- 2016: 26th
Even at their lowest ranking during his final season there, the Ducks were still averaging 224 yards per game on the ground. So while Trubisky gets the attention, the real benefactors of Helfrich’s arrival may end up being Cohen and Jordan Howard. Perhaps this is why Nagy hired him. He has the expertise at quarterback, so he brought in someone who could compliment the running game.
A wise decision if so.
