The Chicago Bears hired Bill Lazor as their new offensive coordinator. A big part of why is his experience. He’s held the same job for two other NFL franchises. Something Mark Helfrich couldn’t offer. Another thing he’s proven quite good at is getting the most out of his quarterbacks. Both Nick Foles and Ryan Tannehill delivered career-best seasons in 2013 and 2014 respectively under his direction. Part of why that is may have to do with how he approaches his offensive setup.
One thing that Lazor has historically loved to utilize in his offenses is heavy doses of play action. For example, in 2014 Miami ran 26% of their offensive snaps off play action. The 6th-most in the NFL according to Football Outsiders. This was a big help to a team that finished 11th in scoring that year with Tannehill throwing for 4,000 yards and 27 touchdowns. Lazor won’t be calling plays in Chicago, but that influence could be highly beneficial in regards to reshaping the offensive playbook.
This is promising news since the Bears are a team that tends not to run as much play action as other teams. It was just 22% in 2018 and even less in 2019. Of the 516 passes that Mitch Trubisky attempted this past season, only 86 were off play action. That is just 16.67%. Somewhat baffling since the young quarterback had an 88.9 passer rating on such plays compared to the 81.8 off all other types. People might criticize what Lazor can offer overall, but his insistence on more play action might yield positive results in 2020.
Bill Lazor philosophy would excel with a running game
While there no problem with having a love for using play action, Lazor’s primary issue throughout his previous years as a coordinator was he didn’t have a strong enough rushing attack to make it more effective. His best ranking in that category was 12th in 2014. None of his others made it above 21st. This can be explained by a general lack of commitment to running the ball, but also limited block up front. So if the Bears plan to keep their 27th ranked rushing attack, this approach won’t work.
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That might be why they hired Juan Castillo as their new offensive line coach. He’s known for being a running game specialist as he proved in Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Buffalo. His help combined with some upgrades to the roster should be able to reinvigorate the Bears ground attack. If this succeeds, then a play action-heavy approach might just be what gets Trubisky back on track.
