Coaching up quarterbacks is a complicated thing. New Chicago Bears head coach Matt Nagy knows this well. He played the position for over a decade and has coached it for that same length. It’s a big reason the team hired him. They believe he has the prowess needed to make former #2 overall pick Mitch Trubisky the star they believe he can be.
There are many things that will go into this. Basically, though it comes down to figuring out what Trubisky does best. At that point, it becomes the job of the coaches to maximize that while hiding his weaknesses. Something Dowell Loggains and the previous staff never had a full grasp of. That lent to why the Bears finished dead last in passing for 2017.
So what are some things that Nagy could do? Well, there is one idea that was criminally ignored far too often most of last year. One that Trubisky showed plenty of prowess for in college but for whatever reason went largely ignored by Loggains and John Fox.
Matt Nagy can help Trubisky by going with the no-huddle
One of the hardest things to do for a coach is change. Nagy prides himself on being able to find and embrace new techniques in order to better himself. Among the things he might want to get used to is more no-huddle offense. According to the site Sharp Football Stats, Kansas City ran just 30 total plays without a huddle last season. This might be something he wants to reconsider because it appears Trubisky is quite adept at that style of offense.
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In 2017 the Bears ran a total of 508 pass plays, 475 were out of the huddle and 33 were no-huddle. Based on the numbers Trubisky was more effective from the latter. Bears QBs managed a successful play just 37% of the time from a huddle compared to 52% without one. The quarterback ratings were 70.7 to 75.4 in favor of the no-huddle.
This shouldn’t be a surprise. Trubisky has shown an affinity for this style since college. The strength of his game is quick, accurate passing. When allowed to play an up-tempo, this tends to keep a defense guess and allows receivers a little more room to find space. Trubisky has the processor and precise arm to be lethal in those situations.
It’s hard to say what the Bears will do. Still, with Mark Helfrich involved, a man who was a big proponent of the no-huddle at Oregon, it stands to reason this is a direction the Bears will certainly embrace more often moving forward.
