People are already making assumptions that new offensive coordinator Bill Lazor has no power on the Chicago Bears reconfigured coaching staff. It’s true that he will not call plays. That power remains in the hands of Matt Nagy. However, to say that the guy who is basically Nagy’s right-hand man has no sway on this offense is incorrect. Especially since he and Nagy have a history and a trust together.
This could become especially important next month as the Bears prepare to add one or two new faces to the quarterback room. The question everybody has is who that will end up being. Former New York Jets and Miami Dolphins GM Mike Tannenbaum believes the name to watch is Marcus Mariota. He believes the style of offense the Bears are likely to run with Lazor in charge with be a great fit for the former Titans starter.
He explained on ESPN’s Get Up.
“I think Mariota is the perfect compliment to Mitch Trubisky. So if Trubisky would stumble, you could put Mariota in there. He doesn’t need a lot of reps, you don’t have to change the offense. It’s a good fit. One key statistic from last year is Trubisky was 30th in the league in yards per attempt which means they do so much behind the line of scrimmage. They made a change at offensive coordinator, they added Bill Lazor. I think Mariota is an ideal fit for that situation.”
Bill Lazor style does fit what Mariota would know well
Tannenbaum makes an interesting point here. Lazor has a reputation that is geared around pass-first offenses. Ones that like to feature heavily in the shotgun formation. In 2018, when he was offensive coordinator for the Cincinnati Bengals, Andy Dalton threw 286 of his 365 passes from the shotgun formation. There is also one other aspect that could be a big hit with Mariota.
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The run-pass option.
One thing the quarterback became famous for at Oregon in college was being able to execute their dynamic offense which featured boatloads of run-pass option. This is a concept that Lazor is a big proponent of. His Bengals offenses in 2017 and 2018 featured it heavily despite having a rather immobile quarterback in Dalton to run them.
Mariota threw just 14 passes from the RPO between 2018 and 2019 according to Pro-Football-Reference. Almost criminal misuse of what he does best. The Titans never really tried to gear their offenses around what made him a star in college. That might change if he came to Chicago.
