When an NFL team goes from a 12-win season to .500 or worse the following year, that’s usually an indication that big changes are coming.
That’s what’s expected with the Chicago Bears, whose fall from grace was well-documented this season. General manager Ryan Pace and head coach Matt Nagy should be safe, but the same can’t be said for some members of the coaching staff.
When offensive coordinator Mark Helfrich was asked if he was concerned that there would be a coaching shakeup on offense this offseason, he acknowledged that it was a possibility.
“When you’re in this business, stuff happens,” he said. “And that’s a possibility.”
The Bears’ failures in 2019 can be traced back to the offense, whose regression has been the single-most impactful element in Chicago’s decline this season. So if there are changes coming, it makes sense for them to happen on the offensive side of the ball.
Chicago’s offense has been one of the worst in the league this season — they rank 29th in yards per game (294.1) and 30th in points per game (17.3), ahead of only the Washington Redskins and Cincinnati Bengals.
That wasn’t supposed to happen. Not in Year 2 of Matt Nagy’s offense. Not with a young quarterback in Mitchell Trubisky that was supposed to take a step forward. Not with a group that just had to be “good enough” for their championship-caliber defense.
As Nagy has vowed to do whatever it takes to fix this ailing offense, that could lead to staffing turnover.
“That’s a part of my job as a head coach, is to make sure that I look at all silos,” Nagy said. “Whatever that is, I need to make sure that I do that. And it’s hard right now when you’re in the middle of everything, to be able to come to emotional decisions either way — players, coaches, etc. But that’s something that we handle when the time comes.”
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