What the Mark Helfrich hire means for Bears players
By Eric Brown
The Bears made a surprising move on Thursday, hiring former Oregon head coach Mark Helfrich to be the offensive coordinator next season. What does the hire mean for Chicago’s players?
The Chicago Bears have finally found their savior on the offensive side of the ball. Former Oregon head coach, and studio analyst Mark Helfrich will be the offensive coordinator next season. In the 2017 season, Bears fans had to deal with Dowell Loggains refusing to use Adam Shaheen until the Zach Miller injury, and inexplicably not playing Tarik Cohen despite him being the most explosive player on the roster.
During Helfrich’s time at Oregon the team ranked in the top five of total scoring three out of the four seasons. Part of that was due to Heisman winner Marcus Mariota being the quarterback of the team during those years. However, Helfrich calling the plays should not be thrown to the side just because he had a future NFL QB at his helm.
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As Bears fan are hoping that some of that good will and fortune comes to the windy city with him, they have to be excited about what Helfrich will be bringing to the team. Expect a fast paced offense between him and Matt Nagy, formerly of the Chiefs who will now be the head coach of Chicago. What does the hire mean for players like Cohen, Jordan Howard, and the rest of the Bears offense?
What it means for the running backs
As for Cohen and Howard, the teams two leading rushers during the 2017 season they have to be excited about how Mark Helfrich will help them expand their knowledge of football. Typically Helfrich has ran a spread offense, as proven by his use of it with Mariota in college. However, the NFL is an entirely different game than the college ranks. Most likely he will implement some form of the spread offense.
The spread offense is where Cohen will thrive. We all saw what he brings to the table in terms of pure speed last year, give him the right plays and he could easily become a legitimate most improved player contender for the 2018 season. Cohen should also see a rise in touches with the additions of Nagy and Cohen. If Nagy uses Cohen anything like he used Kareem Hunt, the front-runner for the 2017 season rookie of the year award, Bears fans will be happy with the results.
What it means for the wide receivers
The Bears wide receiver core was arguably one of the worst in the entire NFL for the 2017 season. Yes, we know Cameron Meredith and Kevin White were both injured. Yes, we know Trubisky was a rookie quarterback. And yes, we all know what an abomination of a play-caller that Loggains was for Chicago. However, with all that being said there is no excuse for the pitiful play that the Bears receivers displayed last year.
Even if both of them return healthy, Chicago must make a move either towards signing one of the top free agent receivers on the market, or seriously debating whether to spend their first round draft pick on Calvin Ridley or Christian Kirk. The hiring of Helfrich will ensure that the Bears 2018 offense will depend on the speed of their receiving core to make double moves to get past their defender.
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The Bears still need to make plenty of moves in the offseason to have any hopes of contending in 2018. Despite knocking it out of the park in terms of coaching hires, now it is time to go out there to sign players that those coaches will make the most of.