It’s the season of change in the NFL. Teams that didn’t make the postseason have begun to address deficiencies and gaps that they feel, once upgraded, will bring them back to contending for the playoffs in 2020. The Chicago Bears are no exception.
After their season-ending press conference last week (New Year’s Eve), I shared my thoughts on what was said, what was implied, and what might happen next.
Alas, not an hour after I published that article, Adam Hoge of WGN Radio reported that the Bears had fired OC Mark Helfrich, OL coach Harry Hiestand, TE coach Kevin Gilbride, and Assistant ST coach Brock Olivo.
A few days later, the Bears began to address those gaps on the coaching staff. The first hire? Respected OL coach Juan Castillo.
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The Bears have plenty of moves left to make, both on the coaching staff (who will be the OC?) and on the personnel side once the legal tampering window opens. It figures to be a wild ride.
With that, I reach into the first offseason Bears Mailbag of 2020. Thanks to everyone who submitted questions. I always appreciate the participation! Follow me on Twitter @DhruvKoul to continue the conversation.
Mailbag
An offensive coordinator has many responsibilities. They help design scheme/plays, they help put together the game plan for each weekly opponent, they prepare the offense for each game, and some of them call plays. Last year, in Chicago, Mark Helfrich had all of the regular OC responsibilities, except for calling plays. That was reserved for Matt Nagy (and it’s a good thing it was — he was largely excellent.)
Pat Shurmur is one of the most respected offensive minds in the game, and has proven success at multiple stops in his career. He was the OC under Chip Kelly in Philadelphia, he helped take Case Keenum and the Vikings to the NFC Championship game (while helping solidify their running game), and masked the atrociousness of Daniel Jones to the point where people think he’s actually a good QB. That’s impressive work.
Shurmur and Matt Nagy have worked together in the past, and an opportunity to work together would certainly appeal to Shurmur. It’s quite possible that Nagy would have to give up play calling for that to happen, and while Nagy is an excellent play designer and good play caller, the opportunity to bring in someone well respected like Shurmur would be a great get for the coaching staff.
As far as the likelihood of him joining the staff, it seems that there’s a better chance than we think. Jeff Hughes of Da Bears Blog indicates that it’s quite a possibility. He has very good information and has broken intriguing stories such as the Harry Hiestand hiring, Mark Helfrich’s hiring, the Juan Castillo hiring, etc. He doesn’t mess around when it comes to information. Bears fans should be optimistic.
If I was a betting man, I would wager that Taylor Gabriel isn’t on the roster next year — either traded or released. He has trade value, so it’s not inconceivable to think the Bears could get a draft pick out of him. But if push comes to shove, I can’t imagine a scenario where he’s back.
He missed a good bit of the season with a concussion, and the Bears didn’t lack playmakers at wide receiver (when Mitch Trubisky could actually get them the ball.) Anthony Miller, Javon Wims, and even Riley Ridley all stepped up at times. Of course, Allen Robinson held down the WR1 fort.
Gabriel did not perform well when he did play this year, routinely dropping catchable balls and showing his visible frustration on the field. It’s clear that he was getting fed up with Trubisky’s poor play this year — that kind of attitude, while understandable, is not acceptable. It’s hard to justify keeping Gabriel another year given the attitude and production regression. So I think he ends up off the roster.
A few of the seemingly obvious cuts (if trades don’t happen) include: Prince Amukamara, Taylor Gabriel, and Bobby Massie (post-June 1 for maximum savings). Kyle Long’s retirement will already save the Bears roughly $8M or so in cap space. The Bears don’t have a lot of cap space to begin with, and these cuts are necessary to give them some breathing room. I wouldn’t be surprised if they agreed to extensions with a few players to reduce 2019 cap hits as well (think Allen Robinson and even Leonard Floyd.) (Eddie Jackson’s extension is already doing the Bears favors in 2020.)
As far as bringing in quarterbacks, my guess is the Bears will bring in at least one veteran to compete with Trubisky, and possibly even draft one (whether it be using a 2nd round pick or a later round pick, depending on how the board falls.)
From a veteran perspective, I like the following names: Tom Brady, Marcus Mariota, Andy Dalton, Ryan Fitzpatrick, and Case Keenum.
From a draft perspective, the Bears could be looking at these names at various points in the draft: Jake Fromm, Shea Patterson, Anthony Gordon, Nate Stanley, and Jordan Love.
The free agent tight end market can be narrowed down to: Hunter Henry, Austin Hooper, and Eric Ebron. While each can bring their own set of skills, it feels like all three will cost more than they’re worth to the Bears. I would imagine the Bears address this position in the draft — perhaps someone like Brycen Hopkins (Purdue) or Cole Kmet (Notre Dame) could be available for Chicago in the second round. They’d be great fits.
Offensive line is another position that I think the Bears will address at some point in the draft, but I’ve always thought that big money (apart from the right QB) should be spent in the trenches. The Bears have big question marks to address in the trenches (RG and EDGE, namely), so I’d imagine the Bears pick one of those positions to pay heavily. I’d imagine the majority of the money goes to EDGE. But a couple free agents that could be interesting to Chicago on the OL are Brandon Scherff and Graham Glasgow.
Nagy is an outstanding head coach. He went 12-4 last year and managed to get this team to 8-8 despite: a 3-5 start, followed by 4-6, and some of the worst QB play this city has seen in some time. It’s a testament to Nagy and the coaching staff that they didn’t let the team completely unravel after the four game losing streak (OAK, NO, LAC, PHI.)
I was going to write something in-depth about how I think Nagy should NOT give up play-calling (I think he’s been absolutely excellent overall.) But I’ll ask you to read this article from Bobby Peters instead. It’s outstanding work and I agree with everything written in there.
Twitter Responses
And now, a few questions and answers posted directly on Twitter…
