One of the bigger surprises this offseason was not so much the coaches hired by the Chicago Bears, but more one they decided to keep. Dave Ragone, the Bears quarterbacks coach seemed like an obvious choice to get the boot back in January. Matt Nagy was reforming the entire offensive staff. One would think he and offensive coordinator Mark Helfrich had designs on that position.
Instead, they surprisingly chose to keep him, apparently at the request of quarterback Mitch Trubisky. Ragone is still somewhat of an unknown. He was a journeyman QB himself for a short time in the early and mid-2000s. Then he transitioned to coaching. He was a quarterbacks coach in Canada as well as Tennessee for a short period before taking a quality control position in Washington.
He didn’t exactly bring glowing credentials with him to Chicago. One would think the passing game ranking 32nd in 2017 didn’t do much for his job security. He should be grateful the team took Trubisky’s opinion into account. Now the 38-year old is even more intent on finish what he started. That’s making the Bears QB a success.
The question is how?
Subscribe to the BFR Youtube channel and ride shotgun with Dave and Ficky as they break down Bears football like nobody else.
Bears quarterbacks coach sought help from an old friend out west
Ragone sat down to talk with Rich Campbell of the Chicago Tribune about the progress of Trubisky and the new offense. He’s quite impressed with how the young quarterback has been able to assimilate the scheme so quickly and how fast he learned to correct his mistakes from last year. Even so, the goal remains to keep improving.
To this end, Ragone confirmed that he sought advice from an old friend and colleague. One who is already well-versed in turning a young, unpolished QB into a star. None other than Sean McVay of the Los Angeles Rams.
“Yeah. Just like a lot of the coaches in this league who are tremendous coaches, Sean is nothing short of that. Obviously it was (Goff’s) second year in the league, gaining confidence from not being the first time out there, guys around him playing as well as he was playing. It’s one thing to have guys around you, but you still need to play well. It seemed like Goff played pretty well, and Sean was in tune to that in terms of how he was calling games.
I know Mitchell knows Jared. It’s one thing to talk to whoever. It’s another thing to go out each day — and I’m sure this is what happened in L.A. — and work their fundamentals and grind it and continue to try to be as successful as they could on each play. That’s kind of the same mantra with Mitchell — repeatable, consistency.”
The work McVay did in 2017 speaks for itself
Going into that year, Rams quarterback Jared Goff was coming off a miserable season. He completed just 54.6% of his passes for 1,089 yards, five touchdowns and seven interceptions in seven starts. He was also sacked a whopping 26 times in those seven games. The kid was beat up and dispirited. McVay was hired to change all that.
Boy did he ever. After revamping the scheme and the surrounding personnel, Goff was a new man. In 14 games he completed 62.1% of his passes for 3,804 yards, 28 touchdown, and seven interceptions. He also was sacked just 25 times. One time fewer than the previous year despite playing double the games. McVay earned Coach of the Year honors for his work.
Ragone is familiar with his work, having spent time with McVay in the same building during their run in Washington. There is nothing wrong with picking the brain of somebody who’s done exactly what the Bears are trying to do. It can only help in the efforts to make Trubisky better.
