The Chicago Bears offense is a second-class citizen in the eyes of fans. It’s routinely viewed as the primary reason this franchise has won just one Super Bowl since the modern era began back in 1966. In that entire span of time, the Bears have featured a top 10 scoring offense in the NFL a grand total of seven times. Seven. Want to have some context for that? The Green Bay Packers have had seven such offenses since 2010.
There is no getting around how pathetic that stat really is. Hence why people have asked the question over and over for years. Why are the Bears so consistently bad at this? Explanations have ranged from one end of the spectrum to the other. They haven’t been able to find a quarterback. They haven’t been able to find a good enough head coach. Yet have people stopped to address the common denominator there?
Maybe the GMs they’ve appointed aren’t equipped to build them.
People talk about backgrounds for coaches all the time. They need a head coach with an offensive background to properly build an offense. Why haven’t those people considered asking the same question about general managers? Most of those guys played or coached football on one side of the ball or another. So it stands to reason they’d have expertise one way or another, right?
This reality has held true across Bears history. Ryan Pace was a defensive lineman in college for Eastern Illinois. It’s probably not an accident the defense, and especially the line is where he’s thrived the most. Jerry Angelo? He coached defensive line and linebackers from 1972 to 1981 before getting into the scouting business. Mark Hatley was a linebacker in college. Dave Wannstedt, who acted as head coach and GM was a defensive coordinator.
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The last guy who held the actual GM title that didn’t have a defensive background was Jim Finks. A former quarterback himself is it any coincidence he had by far the most success drafting offense of anybody in the Super Bowl era including Hall of Famers Walter Payton and Jimbo Covert?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svqCJSa7slw&ab_channel=ChicagoBears
Maybe it’s time to put the Chicago Bears offense in more qualified hands
The Bears have always identified themselves through defense because that is the side of the ball that keeps having the most success. Probably because they consistently draft good players there. They’ve never ventured too far from that style of thinking even as the league has evolved over the years into one more offensively-driven. One where if you don’t score points, it is really difficult to win.
Maybe the time has come for a change in philosophy. Chicago almost made that leap in 2012 when they hired Phil Emery. He did some offensive line work in his earlier days but was mostly a strength and conditioning guy. Even so, that experience seemed to serve him well. He built easily the best offense this organization has seen in decades in 2013 headlined by acquisitions like Brandon Marshall, Alshon Jeffery, Martellus Bennett, and Kyle Long. All who became Pro Bowlers.
Are they really prepared to give Pace another chance?
He’s done nothing for six years to show he can build the Chicago Bears offense into what it should be. He misfired at quarterback three different times and played it cheap on the offensive line for years. There just isn’t enough evidence to suggest he can turn this thing around. If the time has arrived to make a change, they need to consider trying somebody with an offensive background.
Fast-rising Marvin Allen, the assistant GM for the Miami Dolphins was a running back in the NFL. Joe Hortiz, the Ravens Director of College Scouting, coached both quarterbacks and wide receivers. There are options out there to consider.