The Chicago Bears offense was rough last season. There were plenty of reasons for it. Horrible coaching was a big one, as was subpar pass protection and reliance on a rookie quarterback. Yet one thing that wasn’t talked about much was the general lack of complexity. It was evident almost immediately that former offensive coordinator Shane Waldron didn’t put much credence in diversity. He ran the same set of formations and expected players to execute it properly, even if they weren’t always equipped to do so.
Ben Johnson threw that idea in the trash the moment he arrived. According to Brad Biggs of the Chicago Tribune, one of the biggest changes the Bears head coach has made involves an undervalued part of modern offenses.
“The offense has had issues getting to the line of scrimmage quickly and adjusting with a lot more pre-snap motion. The players still are learning the offense. I’d expect it to be better, but again — and this isn’t a cop-out answer — let’s give this time. It should be better by this time next week, and by Week 1 things should be ironed out.”
Motion on offense has been around forever, but teams haven’t always embraced it because it can make a system tougher to learn. However, the benefits are obvious. Motion helps the offense learn what coverage defenses are playing while also creating mismatches for wide receivers and tight ends.
The Chicago Bears learned this lesson the hard way.
Last year, they were the fourth-lowest team in the NFL in motion percentage at 46.22%. Conversely, Johnson’s Detroit Lions team ranked third-most at 82.64%. Here is the ranking in total offense for the top five teams in motion rate.
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- Miami Dolphins: 18th
- Green Bay Packers: 5th
- Detroit Lions: 2nd
- San Francisco 49ers: 4th
- Buffalo Bills: 10th
Keep in mind that Tua Tagovailoa missed six games with injuries for Miami last season, so that ranking likely would’ve been higher. The pattern is pretty clear. Teams that use lots of motion tend to have more success. What makes this so crazy is that the Chicago Bears pretty much invented this style of offense with their iconic T-formation in the 1940s. It helped them win four championships. One would think they would’ve kept it as part of their identity moving forward.
The fact it took a coach from a division rival to bring it back is semi-embarrassing. Still, it feels like sanity is finally prevailing once again at Halas Hall.
